National Pro-Life and Pro-Family Association

Tensions flare in Brazil as supreme court considers loosening abortion restrictions

by Marina Lopes
August 6 2018

SAO PAULO — Brazil’s supreme court is considering decriminalizing abortion through the 12th week of pregnancy, stoking activists' hopes that the country could follow other Latin American nations in loosening abortion restrictions.

Hearings on the issue, which began Friday and continued on Monday, included testimony from dozens of doctors, specialists and religious leaders. Tensions flared in the days leading up to the hearings, with activists on both sides speaking out. Outside the supreme court on Friday, women donned red robes resembling those worn on the hit TV show, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” in favor of decriminalization. Meanwhile, #AbortionisaCrime trended on Twitter, and churches sounded their bells in protest.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/08/06/tensions-flare-brazil-supreme-court-considers-loosening-abortion-restrictions/?utm_term=.b55e1952e7f8

Professor forced into hiding by death threats over Brazil abortion hearing
Campaigner involved in case that could lead to legal abortion in first 12 weeks of pregnancy enters protection programme

Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Thu 2 Aug 2018

Days before a Brazilian supreme court hearing on a move that could eventually decriminalise abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, a leading feminist campaigner is in hiding after receiving death threats.

Debora Diniz, a professor of anthropology at the University of Brasília, who helped bring the legal action with bioethics institute Anis, is sequestered in an unknown location but will still appear at the two-day hearing, which starts on Friday.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/aug/02/professor-forced-into-hiding-by-death-threats-over-brazil-abortion-hearing