‘I was terrified I was going to die.’ Rape victims in Brazil struggle to access legal abortions

A Brazilian woman who says she became pregnant after being raped in March should have been granted access to a legal abortion

By ELÉONORE HUGHES, Associated Press
June 19, 2025

RIO DE JANEIRO -- A 27-year-old Brazilian woman, who said she became pregnant after being raped in March during Carnival in Brasilia, should have been granted access to a legal abortion. But when she sought to terminate the pregnancy at a hospital around a month later, she was told she needed a police report to access the service, despite it not being a legal requirement.

She decided to abort at home with medication she bought on the black market, with only a few friends on site to help. “I fainted several times because of the pain. I was terrified I was going to die,” she said.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/terrified-die-rape-victims-brazil-struggle-access-legal-123029719

New Rio de Janeiro law requires public hospitals to display anti-abortion signs

Opponents view the controversial act as part of a growing trend across Brazil to further restrict abortion access

Tiago Rogero in Rio de Janeiro
Thu 19 Jun 2025

A new law has just come into force in Rio de Janeiro requiring all public hospitals and clinics run by the municipal government to display anti-abortion signs bearing messages such as: “Did you know that the unborn child is discarded as hospital waste?”

Reproductive rights activists view the act as the latest example of a growing trend across Brazil to further restrict access to abortion in a country that already has some of the world’s most restrictive laws.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/19/rio-de-janeiro-anti-abortion-signs

19.06.2025

News

anti-abortion signs

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

anti-choice propaganda

Debora Diniz

Eduardo Paes

Jair Bolsonaro

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Brazil/USA – Why We Must Keep Talking About Abortion Pills

As part of a delegation to Brazil, I saw how our countries’ respective struggles to maintain and expand reproductive justice are really part of the same fight.

Regina Mahone
June 16, 2025

Brasília, Brazil—We packed ourselves into a meeting room at the back of the Socialism and Freedom Party (known as PSOL) office in the National Congress building in Brasília on May 14. The bird-shaped capital of Brazil was developed in the 1950s as a modern, futuristic city, but inside the legislative building are standard government meeting spaces, with cubicle walls and drab, windowless halls.

We took our seats at the big conference table or on one of the folding chairs located along the sides. Lunch was served—an assortment of breads, including the staple pão de queijo; salads; fresh juice; and Brazilian carrot cake, which was fluffy (nothing like the traditional US version) and delicious.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/medication-abortion-misoprostol-brazil/

What Arizonans can learn from Brazil’s near-total abortion ban

By Rep. Analise Ortiz
June 13, 2025

This is the powerful translation of Nem Presa, Nem Morta, the name of an advocacy organization that is leading the resistance against anti-abortion laws in Brazil. In a country with a near-total ban, this is more than a name, it is a rallying cry against restrictions that can lead to jail time and death.

I met them, and other activists, on a legislative delegation to Brazil made possible by the State Innovation Exchange and the Women’s Equality Center. Why should a State Senator from Arizona care about abortion policy in Latin America when our state just passed Prop. 139 to enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution? Because by strengthening connections between the U.S. and Brazil, we can exchange strategies and deepen our understanding of how to stand in resistance to protect each other across the globe.

Here are four ways:.

Continued: https://coppercourier.com/opinion/opinion-what-arizonans-can-learn-from-brazils-near-total-abortion-ban/

New NPR podcast explores a global effort to provide safe access to abortion, outside of a clinic

By Kyle Kellams
June 6, 2025
Podcast: 9:12 minutes

The Network is a new documentary podcast from NPR's Embedded and Futuro Media's Latino USA that explores a global effort to provide access to safe abortions outside of a medical clinic. Hosts Victoria Estrada and Marta Martínez explain how women in Brazil first repurposed an over-the-counter medication to safely end pregnancies. The reporters joined Ozarks at Large host Kyle Kellams for a preview of the series that premiered this week.

Continued: https://www.kuaf.com/show/ozarks-at-large/2025-06-06/new-npr-podcast-explores-a-global-effort-to-provide-safe-access-to-abortion-outside-of-a-clinic

06.06.2025

The Network: Saint-o-tec

June 5, 2025
By Marta Martínez, Victoria Estrada
Podcast: 41-Minute Listen

In the mid-1980s, an OBGYN in Brazil noticed that far fewer pregnant women at his hospital were dying from abortion complications.

It wasn't a coincidence.

Brazilian women had made a discovery that allowed them to safely have abortions at home, despite the country's abortion restrictions. That discovery eventually spread across the globe.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2026/01/01/1263508251/the-network-saintotec

05.06.2025

The Alarming Rise of Gender-Based Violence in Brazil

By Manoela Miklos and Samira Bueno
May 27, 2025

SÃO PAULO—Gender-based violence in Brazil, a longstanding problem in Latin America’s most populous country, has reached alarming levels. In the last 12 months, 37.5% of women aged 16 and over experienced some form of violence. This is the highest rate recorded since the local think tank Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública, known as FBSP, started monitoring the issue in 2017.

The data presents a concerning situation for the 21.4 million women involved in these incidents and for our society as a whole: Despite extensive public debate on gender roles and gender-based violence, there has not been a significant reduction in the number of victims, nor have more individuals sought help. It is our responsibility to understand these statistics and advocate for public policies that address this issue.

Continued: https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/the-alarming-rise-of-gender-based-violence-in-brazil/

27.05.2025

Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública

gender-based violence

Jair Bolsonaro

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

A case of conscience: The Christian feminists fighting Brazil’s anti-abortion laws

A growing movement of Christian feminists are making their voice heard as they oppose threats to tighten the country’s abortion laws. Alice McCool reports from inside their fight.

1 May 2025
Alice McCool

Every month, for 15 days, hundreds of women queue outside a public bank in the town square of Viçosa do Ceará, in rural northeast Brazil. As they wait to receive money from the Bolsa Familia programme – government aid for poor Brazilian families – a woman in her sixties speaks to them through a megaphone.

Liliane de Carvalho is there every single day from 6.30am, unless ‘something unexpected happens’. As a longstanding member of a local Catholic church, she’s preaching – but not about sin or guilt. She’s preaching about the right to abortion.

Continued: https://newint.org/women/2025/case-conscience-christian-feminists-fighting-brazils-anti-abortion-laws

Betrayed by the System in Brazil

Friday 28 February 2025
by L.M. Bonato

While various human rights reports show that annually between one and four million Brazilian women have abortions, the right to women’s bodily autonomy remains a major battle. Currently the law allows abortion only in the case of rape or to save the woman’s life. This means millons of women are forced to seek underground abortions.

Given the rise of conservative parties following Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, far-right politicians are seeking to roll back legal abortion even in the case of rape. Congressman Sóstenes Cavalcante has introduced Bill PL 190424, which would criminalize abortion under all circumstances after 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article8874

28.02.2025

Total criminalisation of abortion is a threat to sexual and reproductive health in Brazil

BMJ 2025; 388 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r52
Published 10 January 2025
Michelle Fernandez, Luísa M M Fernandes, Melania M R de Amorim

In Brazil, a proposed constitutional amendment is currently being discussed in the National Congress, aiming to criminalise abortion in the country entirely. It stipulates prison sentences for women who undergo the procedure, ranging from 6 to 20 years, regardless of the circumstances. The proposal equates abortion with the crime of homicide. The suggested penalties for abortion are harsher than those currently imposed on rapists, who face a maximum of 10 years in prison. The proposed amendment would threaten the reproductive rights and health of women in Brazil, and directly affect their dignity and autonomy.

Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/388/bmj.r52