\n<\/p>\n
A new law has just come into force in Rio de Janeiro requiring all public hospitals and clinics run by the municipal government to display anti-abortion signs bearing messages such as: \u201cDid you know that the unborn child is discarded as hospital waste?\u201d<\/p>\n
Reproductive rights activists view the act as the latest example of a growing trend across Brazil to further restrict access to abortion in a country that already has some of the world\u2019s most restrictive laws.<\/p>\n
In Latin America\u2019s largest country, abortion is only legal in cases of rape, when the pregnant person\u2019s life is at risk, or if the foetus has anencephaly, a fatal brain disorder.<\/p>\n
In recent years, however, politicians, doctors and even judges have taken steps to prevent abortions even in those circumstances.<\/p>\n
Brazil\u2019s main hospital for such procedures, in S\u00e3o Paulo, stopped offering terminations after a decision by the city\u2019s mayor, a staunch supporter of former president Jair Bolsonaro, a strident anti-abortion advocate.<\/p>\n
A congressman from his party proposed a bill punishing abortions after 22 weeks \u2013 even in cases of rape or risk to life \u2013 with up to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n
The federal medical council, which is reportedly dominated by Bolsonaro loyalists, last year banned doctors from using the safest method recommended by the World Health Organization for pregnancies over 22 weeks \u2013 a measure later deemed illegal by Brazil\u2019s supreme court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a direct result of the Bolsonaro years in power,\u201d said anthropologist Debora Diniz, a professor at the University of Bras\u00edlia and one of the country\u2019s leading reproductive rights researchers and activists.<\/p>\n
She acknowledges that the dispute between pro- and anti-abortion positions is not new.<\/p>\n
Diniz herself had to leave the country in 2018 after receiving death threats for her involvement in a campaign to push the supreme court to discuss decriminalising abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy \u2013 a reform that ultimately stalled.<\/p>\n
What has changed now, she says, is that the issue, once confined to the federal level, has become \u201cscattered\u201d across local and regional authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAuthoritarian governments in Latin America have a particular trait: they don\u2019t just disappear when their leader leaves office. Bolsonaro may be gone, but forces aligned with him and his ideas have occupied bodies like the medical council,\u201d said Diniz.<\/p>\n
Such attempts are even more harmful given that legal abortion is not widely available across Brazil \u2013 only 4% of Brazilian cities have facilities and trained professionals to carry out the procedure, and that does not include even all state capitals.<\/p>\n
In the state of Goi\u00e1s, a 13-year-old girl who had been raped turned to the courts after she was denied a legal abortion at a hospital, but a judge prohibited any method that would induce the death of the foetus. A higher court eventually authorised the abortion.<\/p>\n
In that state, the governor \u2013 also a Bolsonaro loyalist \u2013 signed a law requiring women seeking a legal abortion to first listen to the foetal heartbeat.<\/p>\n
Rio\u2019s anti-abortion signs law was approved last Friday by Mayor Eduardo Paes \u2013 who is not a Bolsonaro supporter and is aligned with the current leftwing president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva.<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s decision not to veto the law \u2013 which was proposed by three far-right city councillors \u2013 is being seen as a political move, as he is expected to run for state governor next year.<\/p>\n
Under the law, hospitals providing abortions must also display signs saying: \u201cYou have the right to give your baby up for adoption anonymously \u2026 Give life a chance!\u201d and \u201cAbortion can lead to consequences such as infertility, psychological problems, infections and even death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diniz said the second sign was even more problematic as there is no scientific evidence that abortion, when carried out safely and with medical support, causes any of those effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis law is perverse because it is based on a false narrative of \u2018care\u2019 for women and girls, when in fact it is persecuting them,\u201d said Diniz.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a public prosecutor filed a lawsuit arguing that the law is unconstitutional and requesting that the city government be barred from putting up the signs. The case is yet to be reviewed by a judge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new law has just come into force in Rio de Janeiro requiring all public hospitals and clinics run by the municipal government to display anti-abortion signs bearing messages such as: \u201cDid you know that the unborn child is discarded as hospital waste?\u201d Reproductive rights activists view the act as the latest example of a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[180,179,178,174,175,177,176,173,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-8681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-antiabortion","9":"tag-display","10":"tag-hospitals","11":"tag-janeiro","12":"tag-law","13":"tag-public","14":"tag-requires","15":"tag-rio","16":"tag-signs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}