Public Defender cancels lecture on telemedicine abortion

After the appeal of a group of pro-life federal deputies, the Public Defender of the Union canceled a lecture that would be held next Thursday (31), promoted by the body, with defenders of abortion, in the cases allowed by law, with the help of telemedicine. The parliamentarians sent a letter to the current head of the DPU, Fernando Mauro Barbosa de Oliveira Júnior, expressing “dissatisfaction” with the lecture, which would take place in the agency’s auditorium and would be given by the gynecologist Helena Paro and by the lawyer and activist of the Anis Institute Gabriela Rondon.

“We are surprised that the Federal Public Defender’s Office has incorporated an abortionist agenda, contrary to its institutional mission of defending the most vulnerable and the Brazilian legal system”, says the letter, signed by deputies Diego Garcia (Republicanos-PR) and Chris Tonietto (PL-RJ), and 12 more parliamentarians. They added that any threat to the life of the unborn child requires the public defender to act in order to protect their rights.

Currently, abortion is not punished and can be performed in the public health network when the mother is a victim of rape, her life is at risk or when the fetus has anencephaly. For the other hypotheses, the practice constitutes a crime, with a penalty of up to 3 years in prison.

“Talking about legal abortion and telemedicine is – I suspect to say – irresponsible. Several documents issued by the Federal Council of Medicine and the Ministry of Health point to serious adverse effects resulting from the use of misoprostol outside the hospital environment”, warned the deputies, after mentioning the performance of the speakers.

In April, the Regional Council of Medicine of Minas Gerais (CRM-MG) opened an administrative proceeding against Helena Paro, who created the legal abortion service with the help of telemedicine at the Hospital das Clínicas de Uberlândia during the Covid pandemic. Patients entitled to the procedure and with up to nine weeks of gestation received pills that induce abortion to take at home, where they were monitored by internet or telephone.

Gabriela Rondon, in turn, supported, in 2016, an action by the National Association of Public Defenders (Anadep) before the Federal Supreme Court that intended to legalize abortion by women with zika virus. The request was rejected.

In the letter to the DPU, the deputies cited a 2021 document from the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) “frontally contrary to carrying out the legal abortion procedure through telemedicine and outside the hospital environment”.

“The procedure is condemned by several health professionals and authorities, such as the coordinator of the Technical Chamber of Gynecology and Obstetrics at CFM, Ademar Augusto, who says that the procedure is considered risky and that it should always be performed in a hospital, under medical assistance. . In turn, the president of the Brazilian Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Associations informs that the home use of misoprostol is prohibited”, says the letter sent to the DPU.

At the end of the document, the parliamentarians said that, by promoting the lecture, the head of the DPU could be accused of incitement to crime and administrative impropriety.

This Tuesday afternoon (29), Fernando Mauro responded to the deputies, announcing that the panel “Women’s sexual and reproductive rights – access to legal abortion and telemedicine” is no longer part of the program of the Seminar “Women’s Health and Well-being : Dialogues between SDG 3 and SDG 5 of the UN Agenda 2023”.

The event, to be held on Thursday and Friday, has seven other panels related to topics such as coping with moral and sexual harassment, maternal mortality, public policies for health care for women in menopause, among others.