On April 11th, our colleagues in Brazil celebrated an important victory in the long battle toward safe legal abortion in the country. The Brazilian Supreme Court passed a vote eight to two in favor of making abortion legal in cases of anencephaly, a condition in which the fetus is developing without a brain and is not viable.
Debora Diniz, founder of ANIS and now a member of the IWHC Board of Directors, share her perspective with us: “The Justices who voted in favor justified their votes on women’s reproductive rights, which expands the understanding of the right to abortion beyond the case of anencephaly.”
Although this may seem like a tiny bit of progress in a larger struggle for the right to safe and legal abortion, after either years in the court system it is both a symbolic and actual shift toward greater reproductive rights.
On April 12, the Secretariat of Policies for Women issued a note saying the Government will ensure that the decision of the Supreme Court is enforced in the public health system.
Here’s what some of the Supreme Court judges had to say during the hearing:
“Being a martyr must an option. If anyone wants to carry the pregnancy to term, she can do it. Nobody will prohibit it… However, being forced to carry to term a pregnancy of an anencephalic fetus puts a women in a prison in her own body.” -Justice Marco Aurelio de Mello
“The lack of an appropriate institutional model contributes to this physical and psychological torture, causing harm (sometimes irreparable) to the lives of the women who are affected” -Justice Gilmar Mendes
“Why punish this woman who is already going through a human tragedy?” -Justice Luis Fux
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I can not believe that there would be such a debate over granting women with anecephaly in their pregnancy right to abortion. When the right to abortion for women in these circumstances was first granted it should have stayed in place. It's tragic enough to find that your unborn child has this condition where they are lacking a brain but to be forced to give birth to that child and perhaps solidify the nature of your fetus causes even more distress to the pregnant woman who is under heightened emotion as it is. Hopefully this new law passed is here to stay.
I am sure that many people will have their own opinion and reaction regarding abortion but still, it is essential to know the reason why they agreed with abortion and this issue should not be taken for granted. read more
In the aftermath of the atrocities of World War II there was increased concern in the social and legal protection of human rights as fundamental freedoms. The foundation of the United Nations and the provisions of the United Nations Charter would provide a basis for a comprehensive system of international law and practise for the protection of human rights.
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