Prof. Vera Therezinha
Medeiros Borges
On 21 June 2024, we reported in this newsletter that far right politicians had recently introduced a bill that equated abortions after 22 weeks, that is, abortions that are mainly a consequence of rape, with murder. It would mean women who terminated pregnancies after 22 weeks could be jailed for up to 20 years. Efforts to speed up the debate and pass the bill were made by its supporters, but have been strongly resisted.
Demonstrations against the bill have taken place around the country. Outside Rio’s legislative chamber, when the bill was tabled, a group of women were protesting, carrying banners saying rapists should not be fathers, and children should not be mothers.
Critics of the bill say the severity of punishment of people who have been raped, who often seek medical attention months after the attack, especially children and adolescents, could be greater than that received by the rapist, if convicted, and they oppose any increase in criminalisation of abortion.
In May and June 2024 we shared a report in this newsletter on maternal mortality in Brazil, including from unsafe abortion, a video of abortion rights activists protesting against the bill at the start of the debate, and several other reports on abortion that included Brazil.
On 6 July 2024, the Lancet published a report on further protests against the anti-abortion bill by Brazilian health and medical professionals. “What is at stake is criminalising victims of sexual violence who terminate their pregnancy after 22 weeks”, said Vera Therezinha Medeiros Borges, a professor at the College of Medicine, State University of São Paulo (photo above). She said:
“Why do women [who have been raped] seek [termination] services after 22 weeks? Because more than 50% of them are children or adolescents. They do not know their rights, they are often ashamed of being pregnant, and they are hiding the pregnancy. Sometimes they do not even recognise that they are pregnant until after 22 weeks.”
According to the human rights organisation Nossa, 74,930 rapes were recorded in 2022, with 6 of every 10 of them being children aged 0–13 years. A recent survey by Datafolha, Grupo Folha’s polling institute, found that 66% of the country’s adult population were against the bill.
Officials from the Brazilian Collective Health Association said: “We demand that Bill 1904/24 be withdrawn from the agenda, and we also call on Brazilian society and its democratic organisations to remain alert and assertively confront the set of actions that have prevented girls and women from fully enjoying their sexual and reproductive rights.”
According to Congresswoman and paediatric cardiologist Jandira Feghali, the proposal is a setback in relation to the current abortion legislation and puts women’s rights at risk. “With Bill 1904, they are taking us back to the 1940’s code. The bill makes legal abortion in cases of rape illegal. It’s the Middle Ages”, she said.
The backlash against the bill has had its effect. Arthur Lira, President of the Chamber of Deputies, stated that the bill would need to be discussed further during the second half of the year, before being voted on by the entire lower house. And the protests against it have continued, presumably in order to make sure that opposition to the bill remains in full view.
SOURCE: The Lancet, by Lise Alves. 6 July 2024. PHOTO