{"id":27896,"date":"2024-06-15T07:30:17","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T11:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=27896"},"modified":"2024-06-15T07:30:17","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T11:30:17","slug":"protests-across-brazil-over-divisive-abortion-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/06\/15\/protests-across-brazil-over-divisive-abortion-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests across Brazil over divisive abortion law"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thousands of people in Brazil have protested against a proposed nationwide law change which would equate abortion to homicide, even in cases where a pregnancy is the result of rape.<\/b><\/p>\n

It would mean women who terminate pregnancies after 22 weeks could be jailed for up to 20 years.<\/p>\n

Brazil’s ruling party opposes the move but conservatives in Congress are attempting to push the bill through.<\/p>\n

Protesters have gathered in many Brazilian cities in recent days, including Rio de Janeiro, S\u00e3o Paulo and Bras\u00edlia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Some have carried placards reading “a girl is not a mother”, with much of the anger focused on the impact the law change could have on under-18s.<\/p>\n

Analysis of crime\u00a0data\u00a0,\u00a0external<\/span><\/a>shows children aged 13 and younger make up more than 60% of rape victims in the country.<\/p>\n

Currently under Brazilian law, abortion is legal in very limited circumstances – when someone has been raped, if there is risk to life or if there is a diagnosis of foetal brain abnormality – and can carry prison sentences of up to three years outside of those cases.<\/p>\n

If this change goes ahead, self-administering or consenting to an abortion could result in a jail sentence equivalent to those handed out in \u201csimple homicide\u201d cases, which range from six to 20 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Women(Image: <\/picture><\/span>EPA)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The law would also apply to health professionals carrying out the procedure.<\/p>\n

Simple homicide, under Brazil\u2019s penal code, is when a person kills another with intent.<\/p>\n

The bill has made quicker progress than expected after lawmakers bypassed some procedural stages, leading to outcry from opponents.<\/p>\n

“We will not accept a setback,” councilwoman Monica Benicio told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

“We will not accept a conservative government negotiating spurious policies over our lives. We will continue to advance until legal abortion is a guaranteed right in Brazil,” she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Women<\/picture>(Image: <\/picture><\/span>EPA)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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After the vote was pushed through, deputy S\u00f3stenes Cavalcante, who authored the law change, was buoyant and responded by writing “victory to life” on social media.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian government vehemently opposes the law change, with the country’s human rights minister Silvio Almeida calling it “immoral”.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Mr Almeida said: “It is difficult to believe that Brazilian society, with the countless problems that it has, is currently discussing whether a raped woman and a rapist have the same value in terms of law.”<\/p>\n

His comments came as many activists highlighted the jail sentence for someone charged with rape is around 10 years.<\/p>\n

While Brazil is led by President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva’s left-wing party, many of the country’s lawmakers belong to former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing Liberal Party (PL) and other conservative groups.<\/p>\n

PL are the largest party in Congress’s Chamber of Deputies, but they will need support from other opposition lawmakers for it to pass.<\/p>\n

No date has been set yet for a vote in the Congress’s Chamber of Deputies.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of people in Brazil have protested against a proposed nationwide law change which would equate abortion to homicide, even in cases where a pregnancy is the result of rape. It would mean women who […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2,6],"tags":[10434,786,10435],"class_list":{"0":"post-27896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-human-rights","8":"category-news","9":"category-world","10":"tag-abortion-law","11":"tag-brazil","12":"tag-brazil-congress-chamber-of-deputies","13":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27898,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27896\/revisions\/27898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}