Center for Reproductive Rights
November 14, 2025
The police reporting requirement under Brazil’s Reporting Law places health professionals in a dynamic of dual loyalty to, on the one hand, their ethical duties and obligations to patients and, on the other, their role in the criminal legal system that they have been co-opted into by law to facilitate abortion criminalization against patient care, health, and well-being. Police reporting has wide-ranging impacts on professional duties related to confidentiality, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, non-discrimination, and respect for human rights, especially when the reporting requirement is incorrectly interpreted to enable the identification of patients and providers and of specific information about the sexual violence preceding abortion care.
Health professionals must act to ensure that they, and those with whom they collaborate in providing care, comply with ethical duties and obligations to patients.
Brazil’s Ministry of Health should promulgate revised regulations and release guidance to clarify applicable law and procedures and explicitly signal that the proper scope of the Reporting Law excludes mandatory notification to law enforcement authorities that identify patients seeking legal abortion on the basis that the pregnancy resulted from rape.
Read the full report: https://reproductiverights.org/resources/the-negative-impact-of-police-reporting-requirements-on-health-professional-ethics-in-brazil/