The offensive against reproductive justice and the debate surrounding abortion in Brazil

On International Women's Day we are looking into discussions taking place on the subject of abortion in Brazil, attacks on reproductive justice and encroachments into women's autonomy over their own bodies

An activist in favour of the legalization of abortion demonstrates outside the Rio de Janeiro Legislative House in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 08, 2018. Brazilian women march calling the Brazilian Supreme Court to vote on legalizing abortion. The movement is inspired in the Argentinian demonstrations calling the legalization of abortion in the Latin American country.

While France is celebrating the historic decision to become the first country in the world to include the right to abortion in the Constitution, Brazil is suffering an offensive against reproductive justice and encroachments on women’s autonomy over their own bodies.

Although decriminalisation of abortion has become one of the principal claims of the feminist movement in the country, little has changed in practice or in the legislation. Furthermore, the strengthening of the far right both here and overseas has fuelled the activities of anti-abortion groups on the political arena, which has led to a number of setbacks.

Although the current government has revoked the Bolsonaro administration’s ordinance  that instructed health professionals to report abortions for cases of sexual violence, to the police, steps towards guaranteeing full access to this right are hesitant, due to pressure from a predominantly conservative Congress. 

At the end of last month, for instance, a technical note from the Ministry of Health overturned a 2022 document that recommended a gestational period of up to 21 weeks for the procedure and also stated that “all abortion is a crime.” Brazilian legislation allows for legal termination to take place, without any time limit, in cases of rape, risk to the pregnant person’s life, and foetal anencephaly.  

However, after criticisms from lawmakers such as Senator Damares Alves, the note was suspended, the justification being it had “not gone through all the necessary spheres of the Ministry.” 

Violation of rights

In fact, even in cases that are permitted by law, access to legal abortion is not a right that is realised in Brazil. An example of this is that only 200, or 3.6%,  of the more than 5,500 Brazilian municipalities, provide legal abortions in their healthcare networks, which means over 37.5 million women, of reproductive age, do not have access to this service in their local area.

In addition to limited infrastructure and lack of coverage in the public healthcare system for the provision of pregnancy termination services, access to legal abortion is still socially and institutionally criminalised, imposing various barriers on women, girls, and individuals with uteruses. In 2020, the case of a 10-year-old girl who was a victim of rape was emblematic. She had to travel from the interior of Espírito Santo to Recife to undergo an abortion. Her personal information was leaked and she was confronted by anti-abortion protesters outside the hospital.  Several other cases of victims of sexual violence have been of note in recent years. In Santa Catarina a judge encouraged an 11 year-old year not to have an abortion, and in Piauí, a 12-year old girl was denied legal abortion by the courts.

This year, more cases have come to light, for example the Hospital de Feijó, in the interior of the state of Acre, where a pregnant woman was denied abortion of an anencephalic foetus and in the state of Goiás where an ´awareness campaign against abortion’ is underway. The campaign was set up under a law that also obliges pregnant women to listen to the heartbeat of the foetus. In São Paulo, legal abortion services have been suspended at the landmark hospital in Vila Cachoeirinha since 2023.  Difficulty in having IUDs fitted has also been reported at local public health centres and in private hospitals, which is further evidence of the violation of the constitutional right to family planning.

The anti-abortion movement is gaining force

According to political scientist and lecturer at the University of Brasília, Flávia Biroli, in an interview to the magazine Gama Revista, it is not an exaggeration to say that there is an open attack on the rights of women around the world. She believes conservative movements have been organising and articulating discourses to maintain the criminalisation of abortion. This means that the rise of the far-right in Brazil and around the world strengthens the increased representation of anti-abortion groups in the public discourse and policies.

“This situation has made it possible to contest a fundamental right of women in a way that can be seen as a weakening of democracy itself.” Said Biroli. 

“When we deny the right to abortion, we deny women the fundamental right to decide on something that is central to their physical and psychological integrity, that of planning the course of their own lives.”

Reproductive justice for all women.

Flávia´s words are in alignment with the conversation surrounding reproductive justice, a term used to broaden the way sexual and reproductive rights are addressed and to directly link them to social justice. The idea is to ensure that all people are able to decide whether, how and when to have children and build a family and that they have access to resources and policies that safeguard their life projects. 

In an unequal country like Brazil, this also intersects with social and racial issues. The most recent National Research on Abortion (PNA) shows that the highest abortion rates are found among black and indigenous people, who have low levels of education and live in peripheral areas.

It comes as no surprise that this group has the highest mortality rate when attempting to terminate pregnancy. According to data provided by IBGE, the death rate among white women as a result of abortion is 3 for every 100 thousand live births, whilst among black women this figure rises to 5. For those who have completed only elementary school, the rate is 8.5, almost double the overall average of 4.5.

The precariousness of healthcare services in these areas, the lack of sex education in schools, and limited access to contraceptive methods are some of the factors that explain this situation. Additionally, contexts of inequality and gender-based violence in the everyday lives of various arenas, both private and public, contribute to the reality experienced by the majority of Brazilian women.