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WORLD NEWSFriday 5 January 2018
Brazilian women break taboo to talk about illegal abortions
By RENATA BRITO Roberta Cardoso poses for a portrait in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Amid a rising tide of conservatism en’s activists fear Congress
SARAH DiLORENZO will roll back the already
Associated Press in Brazil that could result in more restrictions on abortion, women like Cardoso are coming out of limited abortion rights.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — In November 2016, a Su-
The doctor was late. So the shadows to tell the stories of their abortions in the hopes of galvanizing public opinion behind preme Court justice wrote
the women sat quietly in that criminalizing first-tri-
the waiting area of a clinic their cause. mester abortions violated
in an upscale neighbor- women’s fundamental
hood of Rio de Janeiro un- (AP Photo/Renata Brito) rights, a decision that
til they were overcome by granted the habeas cor-
thoughts of what they were anencephaly. 200 women died in 2015 af- women to tell their stories, pus release of two people
about to do and what accused of running an
might happen to them. But amid a rising tide of ter abortions. If caught, a 110 came forward in just 19 abortion clinic.
They began to talk. Hours after the decision,
One woman said she was conservatism in Brazil and woman can be sentenced days. Congress created a spe-
in a relationship with a drug cial commission to clarify
lord and knew he would concerns that abortion will to up to three years and One of them was Rebeca the law. It has proposed
force her to have “his” amending Brazil’s constitu-
baby if he found out she become further restricted, the performer of the pro- Mendes, who was seeking tion to state that protec-
was pregnant. Another was tions for life begin at con-
a successful businesswom- women are coming out of cedure up to four, though an abortion. ception.
an who had separated Lawmaker Sostenes Cav-
from her children’s father the shadows to tell their sto- prosecutions are rare. The NGO filed an ur- alcante said it would be
and become pregnant ac- supported by all “who be-
cidentally by another man. ries in the hopes of galva- More than 170 women, in- gent request with the lieve in life” and opposed
A third just cried. by those “who want to kill
A fourth, Roberta Cardoso, nizing support for expand- cluding prominent actress- Supreme Court to termi- the defenseless.”
had become pregnant Cavalcante described the
accidentally with her boy- ed access to abortion. es, directors and academ- nate Mendes’ pregnancy, measure as a complete
friend and felt she wasn’t abortion ban, though the
mature enough to become “We have stopped thinking ics, have signed a mani- drawing national attention lawmaker who wrote it
a mother. has since said it would not
“At that moment I probably of this as a private subject. festo declaring publicly and putting a name and a change current law and is
knew much more about meant only to hold off any
their stories than their fami- It’s a public subject,” said that they had abortions. face to its quest to legalize attempt to further legalize
lies did,” Cardoso, 26, said abortion.
during a recent interview Rosangela Talib, a coor- Thousands of women have abortion. The petition was Jefferson Drezett, who runs
with The Associated Press. the abortion and sexual
As in many countries, abor- dinator for Catholics for also taken to the streets to denied and Mendes even- violence response depart-
tion is a subject of taboo in ment at Perola Byington
Brazil, a socially conserva- Choice, a leading advo- protest attempts to further tually had the procedure state hospital in Sao Pau-
tive nation with the world’s lo, said abortion services
largest Roman Catholic cate in Brazil for reproduc- restrict abortion, and more legally in Colombia. are already insufficient for
population as well as a women who seek them le-
growing evangelical Chris- tive rights. than 34,000 have signed The wave of public testimo- gally, for reasons ranging
tian community. from poor management
Abortion is illegal here ex- An estimated 400,000 to petitions sent to Congress. ny is amplifying a heated to pressure from politicians
cept when a woman’s and religious groups.
life is at risk, when she has 800,000 women have an When the Anis-Bioethics In- debate in Latin America’s “It’s been almost 80 years
been raped or when the that the law (that includes
fetus has a usually fatal abortion each year in Brazil stitute, an NGO that con- largest country, where con- the exceptions) exists, and
brain abnormality called we still haven’t managed
— the vast majority of them ducts research on wom- servatives fear the Supreme to make this law valid in
Brazilian public hospitals,”
illegal. According to Health en’s issues, put out a call Court could rule to legalize he said.
Support for legal abortions
Ministry statistics, more than on Facebook asking for the procedure and wom- has been rising, though
most Brazilians apparently
Mexico presidential front-runner sketches security plan still oppose them.
A Datafolha survey re-
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The not clear he would have leased Dec. 31 said 36
enough legislative support percent of Brazilians inter-
early front-runner in Mex- to do so. viewed were in favor of
Lopez Obrador is a leftist decriminalizing abortion,
ico’s presidential race is former Mexico City mayor up from 23 percent in 2016.
making his third run for pres- But 57 percent were still
Presidential hopeful proposing to tackle what ident. On Thursday he criti- against abortions.
Andres Manuel Lopez cized security policy over The survey interviewed
Obrador speaks in he calls the root causes of the past decade during a over 2,700 people from 192
crime and violence if he militarized offensive against municipalities in Brazil and
drug cartels. He also said he had a margin of error of 2
Mexico City. The wins election in July. Andres would appoint as his pub- percentage points. q
early front-runner in Manuel Lopez Obrador says lic safety secretary Alfonso
Durazo, the former private
Mexico’s presidential he would make economic secretary of conservative
ex-President Vicente Fox.q
race proposed on Jan. development, job creation
4, 2018 to tackle what and educational opportu-
he calls the root causes nities focal points of his ad-
of crime and violence if ministration. He also propos-
he wins election in July. es to integrate military and
police forces into a new
(AP Photo/M. Ugarte)
national guard, though it’s
