Abortion in Brazil

Even today, the abortion in Brazil is illegal, except in cases of rape, when the mother’s life is in danger or in the case of anencephaly, a fetal anomaly in which the fetus lacks part of the brain, leaving the child with virtually no chance of survival. However if a woman is pregnant and she does not want the baby, she will proceed with the abortion whether it is illegal or not. Brazil’s Ministry of Health estimates that about 1 million abortions are performed in the country annually, about 200,000 women are hospitalized every year due to complications from illegal abortions and about 78,000 women die from unsafe abortion. Making abortion legal will not change the number of abortion, however it will decrease the number of complications and deaths. Although some people do not agree with the right to have an abortion, this decision should be made by the woman.

            Although illegal, abortion is very common in Brazil, so if the woman gets pregnant and she really does not want her child, no matter what the reason is, she will do anything to have abortion. If the woman is older and has money, she can easily go to an illegal but private and safe clinic and have the abortion, or even go to another country like Portugal and have a safe abortion. However if the woman is young and poor, she will certainly put her life in danger using harmful drugs to have the abortion. Moreover if a woman who is hospitalized for complications during abortion, she will face criminal and civil actions and run the risk of spending up to three years in jail.

            Another problem is teenage pregnancy. Every year about 1.1 million teenagers get pregnant in Brazil. And, research shows that these teenagers who become mothers have grim prospect for the future because they often leave the school to take care of their child. There are also risks to the baby. Teenager mother may not care to eat correctly and consume enough vitamins to support the baby. Teens also are more likely to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol during pregnancy and this can cause some problems for the baby. Another problem is that teenager mothers are usually forced by the parents to get married to the baby’s father, but most of those marriages end up in divorce. So being forced to have a child, she might not only have grim prospects for the future, but also bring about risk to the health of her child. This can also cause some disregard from the teen mother to her baby and the child will probably grow with some psychological problems

Finally, laws against abortion do not stop abortion, they just make the procedure more dangerous. If abortion was legal, it can be done safely. The number of women who get abortions does not change when it goes from being illegal to legal. What change is whether or not it is safe and done in a proper clinic, mortality rate will decrease radically. Sadly the abortion in Brazil is more an ethical and religious problem, and nobody really care about what life this baby will have or what problems the mother will face. Unfortunately religion influences in a laic State. 

André Yuri Gois

March 12 2014