Legalization of abortion returns to public debate with judgment in the STF

The decriminalization of abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, which began to be judged virtually by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) in the early hours of September 22, is a controversial topic among more conservative groups that oppose legalization, such as evangelicals, and between left-wing and more progressive movements.

The president of the STF, minister Rosa Weber, is the rapporteur of the process and registered, on Friday (22), the vote in favor of the practice not being considered a crime. Minister Luís Roberto Barroso asked that the trial be suspended and taken to the physical plenary. The new date has not yet been set.

This Thursday (28) is the Day of Fight for the Decriminalization and Legalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean. The São Paulo Front against the Criminalization of Women and for the Legalization of Abortion calls on parties, movements and collectives for a unified act in favor of the agenda. The gathering begins at 5pm in the São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand Museum of Art (Masp).

In Latin America, several countries have already legalized the procedure. In 2012, while Brazil was still deciding whether anencephalic abortion was a crime or not – the STF decided not -, Uruguay had already legalized the practice, regardless of the pregnant woman’s situation and conception. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia, respectively, joined Uruguay.

Decriminalization is a recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO), which advocates that it be a right for everyone, with no limit on gestational age, and that medical abortion should be preferred, with misoprostol and mifepristone, prohibited in Brazil.

In the metropolitan region of São Paulo, the issue gained prominence this month. The Santo André City Council enacted Law No. 10,702, prohibiting any direct or indirect local administration body or agency from “encouraging or promoting the practice of abortion”. Article 128 of Decree-Law No. 2,848 says that the doctor who performs the procedure to save the pregnant woman and in the case of rape of the woman is not punished. Law No. 10,702 was a proposal by councilor Márcio Colombo (PSDB). In Brazil, abortion is considered legal in cases of pregnancy resulting from rape, risk to the pregnant woman’s life and fetal anencephaly.

Moral judgment

For gynecologist and obstetrician Helena Paro, the stance of more conservative professionals regarding the right to abortion under any circumstances is an element that generates negligence in offices and hospitals, even extending to patients who are supported by the law. The doctor has been working with legal abortion for around six years and states that the activity has given her “the meaning of life” back, as she feels good helping young people. Helena mentioned a patient seen a few days ago who became pregnant after being a victim of rape. She says that, if the young woman continued the pregnancy that she neither wanted nor planned to have, she would reduce her chances of realizing her dream of studying architecture to almost zero.

“The greatest suffering is that of stigma and dying in hiding”, summarizes the professional, who is a professor of Medicine and member of Nuavidas, at the Hospital das Clínicas of the Federal University of Uberlândia, in Minas Gerais.

Helena states that groups opposed to decriminalization put pressure on those in favor and, in her case, present questions to public bodies. “We have a secular State, but we also have a cross on the walls of the halls of the Powers”, she states, referring to the symbol placed in these places and the interference of Christianity in decision-making and the proposition of laws. The gynecologist argues that “the abortion that kills is the clandestine abortion”.

According to the 2021 National Abortion Survey, an estimated 5 million women have had an abortion across the country. The proportion is that one in seven has already undergone the procedure by the age of 40, with 81% of them having a religion, which suggests that, even with their beliefs, they consider it more urgent to resolve the pregnancy as they do not wish to give birth. light to a child they don’t want at that moment. The study indicates that many women have a conservative religion and still have an abortion, even if they do not share the decision with other people. For movements in favor of legalization, the attitude reveals hypocrisy.

Dangers and barriers

The feminist and womanist movements draw attention to the fact that clandestine abortion places women in a more vulnerable situation and, for this reason, argue that it is a public health issue. This association can be observed through other data from the national survey: 43% of them need to be hospitalized after the procedure.

The risk of abortion carried out in an improvised way, without legal protection and, therefore, without adequate assistance from health professionals, can lead to death and, in this scenario, the majority are black. According to the country’s most recent official survey, 64% of women who lost their lives after trying to have an unspecified abortion – the term most used for clandestine abortions – had this profile, based on the period from 2012 to 2021. From 2012 to 2019, more than 192,000 women were hospitalized after unspecified abortions or after the attempt went wrong.

Lawyer Letícia Vella, from Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saúde, assesses that, if the country’s mentality were different, access would be easier even for those who currently have the right to have an abortion. “The barriers are numerous,” she notes.

She cited, among these barriers: few services that offer consultations to enable the possibility of carrying out the procedure; conscientious objection on the part of professionals; gestational age limit; judicial authorization, when not necessary; and distrust of women’s words. She also cited attempts to verify the compatibility of gestational age with the time of violence (rape) and the disregard of chronic diseases.

Report

Designer Ísis* was 39 years old and had been dating her partner for a month, despite having known him for years, when she discovered her unwanted pregnancy. The relationship was as recent as the job she had gotten. Under the law currently in force in Brazil, Isis could not have an abortion. She even took the morning-after pill to prevent pregnancy, but it didn’t work.

Help arrived through people they trusted, mostly women who indicated contacts for purchasing abortive substances. Isis also consulted a doctor to find out how she should take the medicine, which she purchased with money saved in savings, and to find out the risks. She had the support of her partner, who was afraid that she would die or suffer after the procedure.

“I also know a girl who, despite having money, almost couldn’t get an abortion. She was pregnant with twins. I only found out when I went to check it during the transvaginal exam,” says Ísis, adding that the abortion of one of the fetuses was not carried out successfully and that she had to resort to doses of mifepristone, which she obtained through a feminist collective.

“I wasn’t worried about dying, I was worried about giving birth without having planned it. I had very little time on the job. Imagine the confusion,” she says.

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