Entities demand STF so that abortion trial takes place in person

In a joint note, the Brazilian Association of Conservative Jurists (Abrajuc) and the Brazilian Institute of Law and Religion (IBDR) spoke out this Wednesday (20) asking that any of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) ministers appeal the request for prominence during the virtual trial of the action being processed in Court to legalize abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy.

The prominent request causes the virtual trial to be interrupted and rescheduled on a new date in the physical Plenary, where the ministers must give oral arguments for their votes. The trial is scheduled to begin this Friday (22).

To take the issue of legalizing abortion out of the spotlight – which is disapproved by 7 out of every 10 Brazilians – the president of the Supreme Court, Rosa Weber, scheduled the trial for the virtual Plenary, where ministers only cast their votes electronically.

In the note, the two entities maintain that the transfer of the assessment to the physical Plenary “guarantees legal certainty and respect for the fundamental principles that guide the constitutional process and the guarantee of public debate on socially sensitive topics of broad interest”.

“Therefore, very respectfully, ABRAJUC and IBDR suggest that, within the scope of the Federal Supreme Court, institutionally recognized as the Guardian of the Federal Constitution of Brazil, the internal resolutive and regulatory rules of the STF itself be respected, enforcing the fair social order ”, the text continues.

Mobilization against possible legalization of abortion

The inclusion of the topic on the agenda generated mobilization in Brasília to prevent abortion from being legalized in Brazil. Federal deputies from the Parliamentary Front against Abortion and in Defense of Life met, this Wednesday (20), to define action strategies against “judicial activism”.

One of the suggestions presented, according to the president of the Front, deputy Chris Tonietto (PL-RJ), will be to speed up the vote on the Statute of the Unborn Child, under discussion in the Women’s Commission. “We will seek 257 signatures to try to vote on the project directly in the Plenary, preventing the STF from harming the life of the unborn child,” she said.

Parliamentarians emphasize that it is not up to the STF, but to the National Congress, to change Brazilian legislation on criminal matters.

Also this Wednesday, entities that act as amicus curiae (friends of the court) in the aforementioned action filed a request to suspend the virtual trial. In the request, they point out a procedural error committed by the STF, which violates the rules: not giving a period of more than 48 hours so that the parties and amicus curiae have enough time to present defenses and their respective oral arguments. The petition was signed by CNBB, the Mixed Parliamentary Front Against Abortion and in Defense of Life, the Union of Catholic Jurists of São Paulo, and the Institute for the Defense of Life and the Family.