Decriminalization of abortion is disapproved by 7 out of 10 Brazilians

In a trial at the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the decriminalization of abortion is disapproved by 7 out of 10 Brazilians. The data comes from an IPEC survey commissioned by Globo, in September 2022.

According to the survey, while more than half of the population (70%) disagrees with the decriminalization of abortion, around 20% say they are in favor of the practice.

In total, 2,512 people were interviewed between September 9 and 11 last year, in 158 municipalities. Of the total, 8% said they were neither against nor in favor of abortion and 2% were unable to answer.

STF

The trial on the topic had been discussed in the virtual plenary session of the STF, but was interrupted, this Friday (22), after minister Luís Roberto Barroso made a prominent request to take the trial to the physical plenary.

Previously, the President of the Court who is about to leave the Court upon her retirement, Minister Rosa Weber, cast her vote in favor of the decriminalization of abortion in the virtual plenary, where the ministers just send the votes to the STF system without discussion or broadcast on TV Justiça.

Weber’s decision to take the trial to the virtual plenary and avoid public opinion was harshly criticized by several jurists, politicians, journalists and pro-life entities.

The ministers judge ADPF 442, authored by PSOL together with the pro-abortion NGO, Instituto Anis. The action was presented to the STF in March 2017 and requests that the articles of the Penal Code that treat intrauterine murder as a crime be considered unconstitutional.

For the authors of the action, women would have the right to allow the death of their baby in an unwanted pregnancy up to 12 weeks of gestation, regardless of the circumstances.

The proposal is pejoratively called “legal abortion”, since the change in the law, if it were a consensus in society, should occur in the Legislative Branch, and not in the Judiciary.