Brazil: Revoke Regulation Curtailing Abortion Access

Reporting Rape Survivors to Police Can Endanger Their Health

September 21, 2020

Human Rights Watch

Brazilian authorities should revoke a Health Ministry regulation that erects
new barriers to legal abortion access, Human Rights Watch said today.

Among other measures in the August 27, 2020 regulation that could discourage
women and girls from accessing legal abortion, it requires medical personnel to
report to the police anyone who seeks legal termination of a pregnancy after
rape, regardless of the rape survivor’s wishes. The Ministry of Family, Women,
and Human Rights has also announced it will create a hotline for medical
personnel that could be used to report women and girls whom they suspect had an
illegal abortion.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/21/brazil-revoke-regulation-curtailing-abortion-access

Brazilian doctors condemn new rules on abortion

Lise Alves, The Lancet
WORLD REPORT| VOLUME 396, ISSUE 10254, P808, SEPTEMBER 19, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31956-5

Experts say that the new rules for health workers will discourage access to health services and increase the risk of unsafe abortion. Lise Alves reports from São Paulo.

An ordinance passed by Brazil's Health Ministry at the end of August, 2020, related to abortion has led to widespread criticism by doctors. Under the new rules, medical staff must report rapes to police and health workers must offer the patient a chance to see the embryo or fetus via ultrasound before abortion.

Continued: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31956-5/fulltext

The case of the girl from Espírito Santo: Is this a new turning point in the long journey for abortion rights in Brazil?

11 Sep 2020
by Sonia Corrêa

Since 1940, Brazilian law has permitted abortion in cases of rape, and sexual intercourse with persons under 14 years old is automatically defined as rape. In 1999, the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s issued the Technical Protocol orienting Care for Victims of Sexual Violence (MoH Protocol), considered by WHO as a main global reference for sexual and reproductive health policies. Though revised in 2005 and 2012, its content has not been substantially altered.

On August
8th, 2020, the Brazilian press reported the case of a 10-year-old girl who
became pregnant after being raped by her uncle, who lived with her, and her
grandmother in the municipality of São Mateus, state of Espírito Santo
(neighboring Rio de Janeiro). After suffering from abdominal pains, the
girl was taken to a local hospital. She told the medical team that she had been
abused since she was 6 years old.

Continued: https://sxpolitics.org/the-case-of-the-girl-from-espirito-santo-is-this-a-new-turning-point-in-the-long-journey-for-abortion-rights-in-brazil/21576

11.09.2020

Commentary

Damares Alves

minor rape victim

rape victims and abortion

Sara Winter

sexual violence

Technical Protocol orienting Care for Victims of Sexual Violence

Brazil abortion debate: Gov’t imposes new rules for rape victims

Why a 10-year-old child has reignited the debate on abortion in Brazil.
(3 minute video)

by Monica Yanakiew
1 Sep 2020

Brazil has imposed new rules for rape victims seeking an abortion, requiring them to look at the fetus before the procedure.

Doctors are also obligated to report their cases to the police.

This comes two weeks after anti-abortion rights activists surrounded a hospital to stop a 10-year-old girl from terminating her pregnancy.

Al Jazeera's Monica Yanakiew reports from Rio de Janeiro.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/09/brazil-abortion-debate-govt-imposes-rules-rape-victims-200901160743666.html

01.09.2020

anti-choice restrictions

Abortion for 10-year-old rape victim sparks near-riot in Brazil

A near-riot in front of a hospital in the northeastern town of Recife in mid-August sent shock waves across Brazil. Inside, a 10-year-old rape victim was having an abortion.

Aug 31 , 2020, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Conservative religious groups and right-wing politicians connected to the more radical evangelical churches gathered in front of the hospital and attempted to break in to stop the abortion.

The case of Menina (Portuguese for "girl") as she became known because her identity cannot be disclosed, came to light after the Minister for Women, Family and Human Rights, Damares Alves, herself a pastor of a Pentecostal church, sent representatives to meet with the girl's family trying to convince her to keep the baby.

Continued: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/abortion-10-year-old-rape-victim-sparks-near-riot-in-brazil

Brazil expands requirements for abortion in rape cases

AFP, Rio de Janeiro
AUG 29 2020

Brazil expanded its requirements Friday for rape victims seeking an abortion, including a rule that medical staff must tell the woman she can see the embryo or fetus via ultrasound.

The new regulations published by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's health ministry also stipulate that the rape "must be reported to police" regardless of the woman's wishes, that she must give doctors "a detailed account" of what happened, and that she must be "expressly warned" she can be prosecuted for fraud and aborting illegally if she is unable to prove her claim.

Continued: https://www.deccanherald.com/international/brazil-expands-requirements-for-abortion-in-rape-cases-879458.html

Religious zealots only show why abortion should be legal

By Suzanne McLaughlin
22nd August

LAST week a 10-year-old Brazilian girl wearing a little flowery dress and cheap
flip-flops was bundled into a car boot clutching her fluffy toy frog. She was
driven through a back door to a hospital guarded by military police past a
throng of right-wing and religious extremists in order to have a termination.

Abortion is allowed in Brazil in just three instances: to save a woman’s life,
if it is the result of rape and if the child is dead. This little girl was
living through two of these circumstances. She was a victim of rape and her
life was in imminent danger and so the judge in her home area ruled that the
abortion should go ahead.

Continued: https://www.thenational.scot/news/18669689.suzanne-mclaughlin-religious-zealots-show-abortion-legal/

A 10-Year-Old Girl’s Ordeal to Have a Legal Abortion in Brazil

August 20, 2020
Delphine Starr, Coordinator, Children's Rights Division
Human Rights Watch

Earlier this month, a 10-year-old-girl in Espírito Santo State, Brazil, discovered she was pregnant after 4 years of repeated rape by her uncle, who threatened her to keep quiet. The girl, who lives with her extended family, wanted to end the pregnancy, which could have endangered her life at such a young age. Under Brazilian law, which allows abortions in cases of rape and when it is necessary to save the pregnant person’s life, she had the right to do so. However, the hospital where she was admitted refused to perform the abortion, alleging it did not have the authority to conduct the procedure. Following a judge’s intervention and a 900-mile journey to receive care, the girl finally had the abortion on August 17.

But her ordeal didn’t end there.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/20/10-year-old-girls-ordeal-have-legal-abortion-brazil

20.08.2020

Featured

News

anti-choice cruelty

anti-choice invasion of privacy

Brazil: outcry as religious extremists harass child seeking abortion

Ten-year-old girl was forced to fly more than 900 miles to north-eastern city of Recife for the procedure after being raped

Tom Phillips and Caio Barretto Briso in Rio de Janeiro
Mon 17 Aug 2020

Scores of Brazilian women have taken to the streets to protect a 10-year-old child who was being persecuted by religious extremists for trying to legally undergo an abortion after being raped, allegedly by her uncle.

The girl, from São Mateus, a small town in the south-eastern state of Espírito Santo, was admitted to hospital on 7 August complaining of abdominal pain and doctors confirmed she was pregnant.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/17/brazil-protest-abortion-recife-hospital

10-year-old rape victim in Brazil safely aborts after feminists expel religious extremists

Religious fundamentalists attempted to invade a health center in the city of Recife in a bid to prevent the procedure. The child earlier had to travel over 1,800 km after she was denied her legal right in her home State

August 17, 2020
by Peoples Dispatch

On Monday, August 17, religious fundamentalists attempted to invade the Integrated Health Center Amauri de Medeiros (CISAM) in Recife (PE), Brazil, to stop a 10-year-old child from carrying out an abortion. The child became pregnant after she was raped by her uncle. The patient was earlier denied her legal right at the University Hospital Cassiano Antônio Moraes in the Espírito Santo State and had to travel to Recife, the capital of Pernambuco State, which is over 1,800 km away, to access the procedure.

The religious fundamentalists who had gathered outside the health center in Recife were confronted and expelled by a group of feminists who mobilized to protect the life of the child and her legal right. Following their expulsion, the procedure was carried out safely and the child is recovering.

Continued: https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/08/17/10-year-old-rape-victim-in-brazil-safely-aborts-after-feminists-expel-religious-extremists/

rape and abortion, Integrated Health Center
Amauri de Medeiros, University Hospital Cassiano Antônio, anti-choice cruelty,
anti-choice hatred, anti-choice misogyny, sexual violence, child sexual abuse,
Sara Winter, National Abortion Investigation, World March of Women,

17.08.2020