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The Future of Abortion Access in Brazil: Religion, Revolt and Reproductive Rights under Bolsonaro

  • Big Eyes
  • Sep 5, 2019
  • 5 min read

[Woman holds sign saying 'The abortion of our rights should be the only thing criminalized' in Brazilian portuguese. Photo sourced from News Talk]

On the 14th of August, 2019, tens of thousands of Brazilian women took to the streets of the country’s capital of Brasilia to condemn the policies of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. The women, including many of indigenous descent, were protesting what they saw as the President’s racist, misogynistic, homophobic and genocidal policies and denounced a wide range of problems in the country, including the culture of machismo and sexism plaguing Brazil. Among the many inequalities and issues faced by women in Brazil, a country ranked 95th in the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global Gender Gap Report, is their access to reproductive rights. Abortion is prohibited in Brazil except for cases involving rape or where a woman’s life is in danger. With the election of an extreme and conservative President, notorious his offensive remarks on women, LGBTQ communities and minorities, it is only fair to question worrisomely the future of women’s access to abortion in Brazil.

BOLSONARO’S RISE & ANTI-ABORTION IDEOLOGY

Ahead of Bolsonaro’s election as President of Brazil in 2018, many feared the impacts his infamously misogynistic discourse would have for women’s rights in Brazil. This included Women Against Bolsonaro founder Ludimilla Teixeira, who told The Guardian, “it is terrifying to think we might have a president who doesn’t care about gender equality.” It came therefore to little surprise when, soon after being elected, Bolsonaro abolished the country’s human rights ministry and replaced it with a newly-created ministry overseeing women, family, human and indigenous rights all-in one. The new ministry - which came under heavy critique from Brazil’s human rights activists - would be led by conservative evangelical pastor Damara Alves, who is famously anti-abortion, denies gender inequality and sees women as ‘born to be mothers.’

Even less surprising is Bolsonaro’s recent clarification of his position on the future of access to abortion in Brazil. In an interview given in January 2019 to Bloomberg’s John Micklewaith, the controversial Brazilian president stated that, “I am a Christian, I believe in God. If it depends on me, no initiative favourable to abortion will be presented in Parliament. If Parliament decides to approve by majority one of these projects, I will veto it.” It is clear that Bolsonaro’s government will work hard to actively derail and deteriorate any efforts made to increase Brazilian women’s safe access to legalised abortion, deteriorating the already limited access women have to their reproductive rights in the country.

ISSUES & RISKS OF CRIMINALIZED ABORTION IN BRAZIL

In Brazil, 500,000 clandestine abortions are carried out every year, of which over 200,000 will result in complications and around 500 in death. The Bolsonaro government’s anti-abortion approach and efforts will unfortunately have very real and violent consequences for the women of Brazil and, as history has shown us, these will do very little to curb the number of clandestine abortions that take place annually. A National Abortion Survey conducted in 2016 found that almost 1 in every 5 women had undergone at least one abortion by the age of 40.

While the research showed that despite repression and illegality women were increasingly using safer method for abortions, this does not necessarily mean that Brazilian women at risk when going through an illegal abortion. In fact, Ministry of Health data showed that one woman dies from complications from an illegal abortion every two days in Brazil. Furthermore, while abortion affects all women in Brazil, this does not mean it affects all Brazilian women equally. In an interview with the Wilson Center, anthropologist, women’s rights activist and film-maker Debora Diniz summarises the issue perfectly, “Criminalization doesn't stop women from having abortions; it merely exposes the most vulnerable ones - younger, poorer, Black and Indigenous women - to unsafe procedures and criminal prosecution.”

HOPE FOR BRAZIL IN NEIGHBOURS’ SUCCESSES

Though the future landscape for legal elective abortions – that is, interruption of pregnancies under 20 weeks at a woman’s requests for whatever reason she sees fit – may seem somewhat bleak in a Brazil led by Jair Bolsonaro, it is not completely devoid of hope. Rather, Brazilian women’s rights and pro-choice movements and NGOs are drawing inspiration from its neighbouring Latin American countries’ pursuit of legal, and safe, access to abortions, especially successful efforts made by Argentina’s feminist movements (where abortion is also illegal in elective terms).

Barely a month after Argentina’s lower house of Congress narrowly approved a contentious bill that would allow women to terminate pregnancies during the first 14 weeks, thousands of Brazilian women were shutting down São Paulo’s famous Avenida Paulista under the banner ‘It’s Our Time to Legalize Abortion’ to protest in favour of decriminalizing abortions in the country. While the conservative, far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro may be keen to halt any progress in the legalization of elective abortions in Brazil, Brazilian women are fighting back and demanding its decriminalization.

FUTURE OF ABORTION IN BRAZIL? GLOOMY WITH A DROP OF HOPE

Upon first glance, it seems as if the future of legal, safe and accessible abortions for Brazilian woman seems distant, gloomy and quasi-impossible. Under Bolsonaro, it is clear that human rights as a whole, and especially the rights of women, minorities and indigenous communities, are under immense threat and when it comes to abortions, it is clear Jair won’t be putting any efforts to legalise them anytime soon. However, it would also be purely pessimistic, and dismissive of the work of women’s rights movements across Latin America, to ignore the potential beacons of hope for Brazilian women on the matter.

Recently, Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão publicly supported elective abortions in an interview with O Globo, stating that “my opinion as a citizen, not as a member of government, is that [abortion] is a personal decision.” There may, after all, be a positive future in which Brazilian girls and women, from all different backgrounds and walks of life, will be able to access abortions safely and legally, without persecution or judgement. As summarised succinctly by José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, “Brazil’s women and girls should not have to wait any longer for their reproductive rights to be respected.”

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