Abortion in Brazil

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Abortion in Brazil is currently illegal except under the following two circumstances: if the pregnancy puts the life of the woman in serious risk, or if the pregnancy is the result of a rape. In practice, to obtain a legal abortion in the case of rape has been all but impossible, as proving the fact of the rape in time is very difficult. A recent development was an order by the Health Ministery, stating that just a denounce of the rape to police is enough to allow the public health system to perform such abortions. This measure has faced strong opposition from the Catholic Church.

Otherwise, in Brazil the punishment for a woman to perform an abortion on herself or consenting to an abortion is one to three years imprisonment. If the abortion causes any harm to the woman the punishment increases by one third. If the abortion causes the death of the woman, then the punishment is doubled for the consenting party.

Legislation about abortion can be found on the Brazilian Penal Code, Title I (Crimes Against the Person), ch. I, Article 124 (Crimes Against Life).

Pro-choice activists have been trying to change the law to include some critical deformations like anencephaly (absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp), but have not been successful. The Supreme Federal Tribunal considered a claim to legalize the abortion of anencephalic fetuses in October 2004, but rejected it after receiving public pressure from the press and the Catholic Bishops Conference of Brazil.

A March 2007 Datafolha/Folha de S. Paulo poll found that 65% of Brazilians believe that their country's current law "should not be modified", 16% that it should be expanded "to allow abortion in other cases", 10% that abortion should be "decriminalized", and 5% were "not sure".^[1]