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The demographic situation in Brazil is characterised by early parenthood. Sterilization of women is often referred to as the cause and the product of this scenario. This article takes a biographical trajectory approach to examine the contraceptive pathways of young women with tubal ligation. Preventing pregnancy is not the only reason for choosing this contraceptive method. In some women’s lives, sterilization is a strategy for stabilizing a reproductive trajectory often marked by a certain irregularity in the use of contraceptive methods. For others, it is related to greater autonomy in the sexual sphere, or to an attempt to discipline their bodies. The current situation, in which abortion is illegal and there are conditions for accessing female sterilization, demonstrates how female bodies are controlled and reveals the political and ideological battle around acts that are not solely biological.