Brazil: Decriminalize Abortion

Brazil: Decriminalize Abortion
Court Considering Petition to Expand Access

July 31, 2018

(São Paulo) – Brazil’s abortion laws are incompatible with its human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said today, releasing a video about the issue. Human Rights Watch will speak at a public hearing on August 3 and 6, 2018, as part of a Supreme Court case challenging the criminalization of abortion in Brazil in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Human Rights Watch will urge the court to consider Brazil’s obligations under international law in reaching its ruling.

Abortion is legal in Brazil only in cases of rape, when necessary to save a woman’s life, or when the fetus suffers from anencephaly – a fatal congenital brain disorder. Women and girls who terminate pregnancies under any other circumstances face up to three years in prison.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/07/31/brazil-decriminalize-abortion


Report Slams Trump’s Abortion ‘Gag Rule’

Report Slams Trump’s Abortion ‘Gag Rule’
A rule first imposed by Ronald Reagan and intensified by Donald Trump doesn’t prevent abortions in developing countries and limits other unrelated medical services, according to a new analysis.

By Paul D. Shinkman, Senior National Security Writer
June 5, 2018

President Donald Trump's unprecedented expansion of a rule prohibiting U.S. funds to international aid groups that discuss or perform abortions is having a severe effect on countries most in need of global support, according to a new study, including prior claims the policy leads to millions of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions and tens of thousands of deaths.

The policy – which applies to $9 billion in funds appropriated to multiple government agencies – is having wide-reaching effects, including shutting down funding to some nongovernmental organizations that served as the sole source of health care in developing countries hard-hit by sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies, according to the report "Prescribing Chaos in Global Health: The Global Gag Rule From 1984-2018" conducted by the Center for Health and Gender Equality or CHANGE, released on Tuesday.

Continued: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-06-05/report-trumps-foreign-abortion-gag-rule-harms-developing-countries-other-foreign-aid


Brazil: Reject Abortion Ban

Brazil: Reject Abortion Ban
Constitutional Amendment Would Endanger Women, Girls; Violate Rights

December 12, 2017

(São Paulo) – Brazilian lawmakers should reject a dangerous constitutional amendment that would prohibit abortion in all circumstances, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposed amendment would ban abortion even for pregnancies resulting from rape, or when the life of the woman is in danger.

The proposed abortion ban is part of a constitutional amendment being considered on December 12, 2017, by a special congressional committee of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies. The committee approved the amendment in November, in a controversial vote, with 18 men voting yes and 1 woman voting no.

Continued at source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/12/12/brazil-reject-abortion-ban


Brazil: No Woman Should Need to Beg for An Abortion

No Woman Should Need to Beg for An Abortion

Margaret Wurth, Researcher, Children's Rights Division
December 1, 2017

Last week, Rebeca Mendes Silva Leite, a 30-year-old woman from São Paulo, Brazil, asked Brazil’s Supreme Court for permission to safely and legally terminate an unplanned pregnancy she does not want to continue.

No woman should find herself in this position. But because Rebeca lives in Brazil, where abortion is illegal in most circumstances, she does not qualify for a legal abortion.

Continued at source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/12/01/no-woman-should-need-beg-abortion


Brazil Women Protest Temer’s Abortion Ban

Brazil Women Protest Temer's Abortion Ban

Nov 14, 2017
IN PICTURES: Protesters demonstrate against the criminalization of all cases of abortion, including rape and when the mother's life is in danger.

A Brazilian lower-chamber commission approved an amendment that would outlaw abortion in all cases in the country.
This prohibits abortion even when the pregnancy puts the mother's life in danger; is the result of a rape, or if the fetus is deformed. Women who seek an abortion outside such circumstances can face up to three years in jail.

Women's rights groups have accused the government of Michel Temer and lawmakers of disguising the full abortion ban as a “Trojan horse” within a proposal that claims to improve mothers' rights in the case of premature births.

Continued at source: https://www.telesurtv.net/english/multimedia/Brazil-Women-Protest-Temers-Abortion-Ban-20171111-0016.html


‘A Rapist Is Not a Father’: Brazilian Women Protest Proposed Rollback of Abortion Rights

‘A Rapist Is Not a Father’: Brazilian Women Protest Proposed Rollback of Abortion Rights
November 14, 2017
Michael Fox

Women have taken to the streets by the thousands in Brazil to fight the conservative government’s latest threat to human rights in the country: a proposed total ban on abortion.

“A rapist is not a father,” declared one banner in Monday’s march in Florianopolis, the capital of the Southern state of Santa Catarina. “The rich abort. The poor die,” read another, highlighting the disproportionate impact outlawing abortion would have on poor and marginalized women who can’t access private clinics to seek safe secret abortions.

Continued at source: http://upsidedownworld.org/archives/brazil/rapist-not-father-brazilian-women-protest-proposed-rollback-abortion-rights/


Will Brazil’s Congress Turn Its Back on Women and Girls?

Will Brazil’s Congress Turn Its Back on Women and Girls?
New Law Would Ban Abortion in Cases of Rape, Health Risk

Margaret Wurth
November 10, 2017

Hundreds of women have died in Brazil from unsafe abortion in recent years. Yet on Wednesday evening, 18 members of a committee in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies – all men – voted in favor of a dangerous new constitutional amendment that, if enacted, could drive those numbers higher. The only vote against was a woman’s.

The new amendment would prohibit abortion under any circumstances. The current law in Brazil allows abortion if the life of the woman is at risk, if the pregnancy resulted from rape, or if the fetus has anencephaly – a fatal congenital brain disorder.

Continued at source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/11/10/will-brazils-congress-turn-its-back-women-and-girls


Brazilian Women Prepare to Protest Full Abortion Ban

Brazilian Women Prepare to Protest Full Abortion Ban

Published 10 November 2017

The criminalization of abortion disproportionately affects poor and marginalized women, who are facing increasingly restricted access to private services.

Brazilian women's groups will march next week to protest against ongoing threats to reproductive rights posed by President Michel Temer’s right-wing administration.

The announcement follows approval by a lower-chamber commission of an amendment that would outlaw abortion in all cases. Currently, abortion is legal if it threatens the mother's life, and in instances of rape.

Continued at source: https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Brazilian-Women-Prepare-to-Protest-Full-Abortion-Ban-20171110-0025.html


Brazil: The forgotten mothers and babies of Zika

The forgotten mothers and babies of Zika

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN
November 2, 2017

(CNN)Barely more than children themselves when they give birth, many of the forgotten mothers of Zika-striken babies in the Brazilian state of Alagoas are shiny-new teenagers, just learning to navigate their developing bodies.

Traversing the challenges of motherhood at that age is tricky at best; attempting to navigate them with a baby who carries the mark of the mosquito is almost unthinkable.

Rakely Santos da Silva was only 15 when she gave birth to her "special" child. She told women's rights activist Debora Diniz, who was traveling across Alagoas interviewing mothers of babies affected by Zika, that she had no idea her daughter, Mirela, had congenital Zika syndrome when she was born.

Continued at source: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/01/health/zikas-forgotten-women-mothers-babies/index.html


Why Brazil Should Decriminalize Abortion

Why Brazil Should Decriminalize Abortion

September 28, 2017
Published in Folha de S.Paulo
Margaret Wurth, Researcher, Children's Rights Division

I met “Mariana,” a 20-year-old woman in Paraíba state, almost a year ago in the waiting area of a public hospital. I was investigating access to reproductive health services for women and girls in northeastern Brazil, and Mariana was one of my first interviews. She told me she had an unplanned pregnancy, and gave birth, when she was 18.

“I cried a lot and I didn’t want it at all,” she said.

But abortion is a crime in Brazil, except in cases of rape, when the life of the woman is at risk, or the fetus has anencephaly—a fatal congenital brain disorder. I asked Mariana if she felt like she had any options other than continuing with the pregnancy. “No,” she said quietly, shaking her head.

Continued at source: Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/28/why-brazil-should-decriminalize-abortion