Rio de Janeiro (AP)-27-year-old Brazilian woman, who said she became pregnant after being raped in March. During the carnival in Brazil, access to legal abortion had to be given. However, when she sought to terminate her pregnancy in the hospital after about a month, she was told she needed a police report to use the service, despite the fact that it was not a legal requirement.
She decided to take home with the medicines she bought on the black market, and only a few friends helped.
“I fainted several times because of the pain. I was afraid I would die,” she said.
The Associated Press does not set people without their permission if they say they were sexually attacked.
In Brazil, abortions are legally limited to rape, life -threatening risk to a pregnant woman or if the fetus does not have a functioning brain. Theoretically, when pregnancy is due to sexual violence, the sacrifice word should be sufficient for access to the procedure.
“The law does not require judicial or similar levels,” explained Ivanilda Figueired, a law professor at Rio de Janeiro State University. “A woman seeking abortion tells the situation for a multidisciplinary team at a health care clinic and theoretically should be enough.”
In practice, however, proponents, activists and health experts say that women face major obstacles to terminate their pregnancy even under limited conditions. This is due to the factors, including the lack of equipment, the differences in clinic protocols and even the resistance of medical staff.
“Healthcare professionals often refuse to perform legal abortions by quoting religious or moral beliefs, even when working in clinics authorized to perform them,” said Carla de Castro Gomes, a sociologist studying abortion and associative researcher at Rio de Janeiro.
Brazilian women also face geographical obstacles to legal abortions. According to the Scientific Journal of Public Health Reports, only 290 devices only 3.6% of municipalities across the country with approximately 213 million people.
2022 June The four non -profit organization have made a legal challenge to the Supreme Court, stating that the possibilities of abortion are violated by the constitutional rights of women. The case is currently reviewed.
“Still taboo”
A 35-year-old cashier from a small city city of Rio de Janeiro also said she had become pregnant due to rape. However, unlike a woman in Brazil, she chose to carry out abortion by legal means, fearing the risk that arises with a secret procedure.
Although the Brazilian Ministry of Health obliges that in the event of pregnancy, health care professionals must present their rights and support their rights, the woman said the hospital committee refused to terminate her pregnancy. They said she was too far out, despite the laws of Brazil, which did not state the term such procedures.
Finally, she found aid through the Sao Paulo Alive Women’s Alive project, a profit-making organization specializing in helping victims of sexual violence to enter legal abortions. The organization helped her find a hospital in another state, 18 -hour drive to perform the procedure.
Thanks to the collection campaign, the woman was able to travel and undergo 30 weeks of pregnancy at the end of April.
“We are already victims of violence and we are forced to suffer even more,” she said in an interview by telephone. “This is a right right guaranteed by law, but unfortunately it is still considered taboo.”
Legal uncertainty
Brazilian abortion laws are one of the most restrained in Latin America, where several countries, including Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, have been conducting extensive reforms to legalize or decriminalize abortions widely.
This legislative environment is strengthened by the political landscape, where extreme right -wing politicians, supported by Catholic and Evangelical voters who make up most of the country, are regularly seeking to further limit limited provisions under the Criminal Code of the country.
2020 Former Right President Jir Bolsonar’s government has announced an ordinance requiring doctors to report victims of rape seeking to the abortion police. Current President Louis Inácio Lula da Silva withdrew the measure during his first month of office in 2023.
But the measure has left a long -term effect.
“These changes can lead to a lot of legal uncertainty to health professionals who are afraid of prosecution for the performance of legal abortion,” said Castro Gomes.
Last year, conservative legislator Sóstenes Cavalcante proposed a bill that would be like termination of pregnancy after 22 weeks with murder, causing extensive feminist groups protests throughout Brazil. The protests eventually encouraged the offer to submit a shelf.
However, in November, the Deputies Chamber Committee approved the proposed constitutional amendment, which would actually prohibit all abortions in determining “the inviolability of the right to life.” Currently, the draft law is detained in anticipation of the formation of the commission.
Earlier this month, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, an ally of Lula, was a fire after he sanctioned a bill obliging anti-abortion reports on posters in municipal hospitals and other health facilities.
“Doctors do not tell you”
Lawyers say access to abortion emphasizes significant differences: women with financial means avoiding legal restrictions when traveling abroad for procedure, while children, poor women and black women face greater obstacles.
According to the Brazilian Society Security Forum, 61.6% of the 83,988 rape victims of 2023 Were under 14 years of age. During the investigation, statistical analysis was conducted and the sale of the investigation was performed. Attacking was less than 4% between 10 and 14 years of girls who were pregnant due to the fact that 2015-2020 It was possible to rape, 2015-2020.
Rio de Janeiro Mare Favela, one of the largest low -income communities in the city, provides women’s home networks of non -profitable women’s home information about their reproductive rights, including legal abortion provisions.
Karina Braga de Souza, a 41-year-old mother of 41-year-old, has learned that abortion is legitimate in some cases in Brazil in a recent seminar.
“We don’t have access (information about information). Doctors don’t tell you,” she said.
Cross -border connections
The feminist group in Brazil is running a campaign at the federal level to improve the services of legal abortion.
Last year, “Child is not a mother”, a feminist group campaign that successfully spoke to the National Children’s and Adolescent Council to adopt a resolution, which details how to resolve the victims of the pregnant child’s rape. Body, which is accompanied by government ministries and civil society organizations, in December. Approved a resolution.
Brazilian activists also seek to improve abortion opportunities to establish relationships with organizations abroad.
May Members of feminist groups in Brazil, including neither in prison nor dead, and Criola, met with the delegation of the most black US state lawmakers. The meeting organized by the DC in the Women’s Equality Center in Washington sought to promote cooperation to defend reproductive rights, especially in the light of the US Supreme Court of 2022. The decision to annul the constitutional right to abortion.
Meanwhile, the consequences for women who are trying to achieve their rights deeply.
A Brazilian woman underwent an abortion at home said she was dealing with the support of other women thanks to the therapy, but was traumatized for the latest events.
Ma that we are not allowed to get into a legal abortion, “our body feels much more pain than it should,” she said. “When I remember, I feel very angry.”
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