- Hundreds of women have come to the Brazilian streets of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on Thursday. The Liberal Party proposes a law for abortion to be judged as ordinary homicide from week 22. If a woman who has been raped under this law aborts after that period of time, she will have a heavier penalty than the rapist.
Hundreds of women have taken to the streets this Thursday to demonstrate on the occasion of a bill that seeks to equate abortion and murder. According to this law, abortion after the 22nd week of pregnancy will be a crime of homicide. If it is punished for the crime of homicide in Brazil, the prison sentence can be six to twenty years, while for sexual violence it is up to 12 years. Therefore, if a woman who has been raped aborted the time she intends to impose the bill after that period, it would be a heavier punishment than the one who raped her.
The bill was drafted by Liberal Party Member Sóstenes Cavalcante on Wednesday at the congress. In Brazil, abortion is legal in case of rape, risk of maternal death and fetal anencephaly. The current law does not provide for a maximum period for the exercise of this right.
The proposals provoke protests from progressive groups that support the government of Lula da Silva. The Minister for Human Rights, Silvio Almeida, has stated that the proposal is “immoral”. In addition, he sees as “provocation” the need to discuss whether the woman who has been raped is more delinquent than the rapist. “The project is absolutely unconstitutional and unacceptable and discriminatory to the woman who has been raped,” added Almeida.