‘No hypocrisy – unsafe abortion kills the poor every day’ and
‘For women’s lives’. Signs held in support of legal abortion during
a march in São Paulo, Brazil, September 28, 2023.
MIGUEL SCHINCARIOL/AFP via Getty Images
On the afternoon of Wednesday, November 27, 2024, the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved a new version of what is being called the “Rapist’s Bill” because if the new version is passed, it will no longer protect women who have been raped. This is a constitutional amendment bill No.164/2012, which seeks to prohibit all grounds for abortion nationally. This attempt has been made through an insidious change of language: the expression “from conception” has been included in Article 5 of the Constitution, in the section that deals with fundamental rights, which guarantees and provides for the “inviolability of the right to life” – altered to read “the right to life from conception”.
The next stage politically is that a special committee must be formed to evaluate the amendment. Abortion is permitted in Brazil in only three cases: if the fetus has anencephaly, in situations of risk for the pregnant woman, and in cases of pregnancy following rape. Even with only these grounds, the abortion services offered by SUS (the public health system) do not reach all women who need them, which compromises access in spite of it being a legal right.
This is taking place in a very tense political moment. The Legislature, which has a majority of conservatives and supporters of Bolsonaro, is advancing their anti-rights agenda to put pressure on the government. Bolsonaro himself has just been accused of coordinating a plan to kill President Lula as well as his Vice-President and the Minister of the Supreme Court.