Abortion in Brazil: Difference between revisions

'''Abortion in Brazil''' is a crime, with penalties of 1 to 3 years of imprisonment for the pregnant woman, and 1 to 4 years of imprisonment for the doctor or any other person who performs the fetus removal procedureabortion on someone else. In three specific situations in Brazil, induced abortion is not punishable by law: in cases of risk to woman's life; when the pregnancy is the result of [[rape]]; and if the fetus is [[Anencephaly|anencephalic]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www2.senado.leg.br/bdsf/bitstream/handle/id/529748/codigo_penal_1ed.pdf | title=Código Penal | last=Senado Federal | first=Brasil | publisher=Brasil | pages=50–51 | date=2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/1075083-maioria-do-stf-e-favoravel-ao-aborto-de-anencefalos.shtml | title=Maioria do STF é favorável ao aborto de anencéfalos | author=SELIGMAN, Felipe e NUBLAT, Johanna | publisher=Folha de S. Paulo | date=12 April 2012 | access-date=12 April 2012 }}</ref> In these cases, the [[Brazilian government]] provides the abortion procedure free of charge through the ''[[Sistema Único de Saúde]]'' (Unified Health System). This does not mean that the law regards abortion in these cases as a "right", but only that women who commitreceive thisabortions under these crimecircumstances will not be punished.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lemos da Silva|first=Rosângela|date=2010|title=DIREITO À JUSTIÇA E A LEI MARIA DA PENHA: uma análise na visão da isonomia material e forma|doi=10.24824/978856248092.8|isbn=9788562480928}}</ref> The punishment for a woman who performs an [[abortion]] on herself or consents to an abortion performed by another outside these legal exceptions is one to three years of detention.<ref name="CP2">[http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Decreto-Lei/Del2848.htm Brazilian Criminal Code] (in Portuguese), art. 124.</ref> The base penalty for a third party that performs an illegal abortion with the consent of the patient, ranges from one to four years of detention, with the possibility of increase by a third if the woman comes to any physical harm, and can be doubled if she dies.<ref name="CP3">[http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Decreto-Lei/Del2848.htm Brazilian Criminal Code] (in Portuguese), arts. 125 and 127.</ref> Criminal penalties fixed at four years or less can be converted to non-incarceration punishments, such as community service and compulsory donation to charity.<ref name="CP4">[http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Decreto-Lei/Del2848.htm Brazilian Criminal Code] (in Portuguese), arts. 43 and 44.</ref>

[[Brazil]] is a signatory of the [[American Human Rights Convention]], also called the Pact of San José. The Convention grants the [[right to life]] to human embryos, "in general, from the moment of [[Fertilisation|conception]]", and has a legal status on a par with the [[Constitution of Brazil|Constitution]] in [[Brazilian Law]]. The [[Civil Code of Brazil]] also safeguards theprovides rights ofto thefetuses unbornand embryos. In a 2008 case, however, the [[Supreme Federal Court]] ruled, by a 6–5 vote, that the right to life applies only to [[intrauterine]] embryos, and that frozen embryos not eligible to a [[Embryo transfer|uterus transfer]] do not hold [[fundamental rights]] and may be manipulatedused for research purposes. In 2012, the Supreme Court also authorized the practiceabortion of abortion on fetuses with [[anencephaly]].

On November 29, 2016, the Supreme Court in Brazil ruled in a non-binding decision that "abortion should not be a crime when performed in the first three months of pregnancy".<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://plus55.com/culture/2016/11/abortion-brazilian-supreme-court|title=BRAZILIAN SUPREME COURT TAKES STEP TOWARDS DECRIMINALIZING ABORTION|newspaper=plus55|language=en-us|access-date=2016-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202115501/http://plus55.com/culture/2016/11/abortion-brazilian-supreme-court|archive-date=2016-12-02|url-status=dead}}</ref> This ruling is verywas controversial, due to the fact that the Brazilian government justhad passed a bill, earlier in 2016, which aimed to make Brazilian law on abortion even stricter.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-03-26/new-bill-aims-make-brazils-abortion-law-even-tougher|title=A new bill aims to make Brazil's abortion law even tougher|newspaper=Public Radio International|language=en-US|access-date=2016-12-01}}</ref>