Feminist, Maria Ribeiro defends Lula silent on abortion until next year

Actress and writer Maria Ribeiro, who recently declared support for former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in this year’s presidential race, suggested he stop talking about legalizing abortion in Brazil to avoid electoral losses.

In an interview with participants of the 66th Training Program in Journalism Diário da Folha, Ribeiro criticized President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and defended Lula’s silence as part of a necessary strategy to guarantee the PT’s victory in the October elections.

“We can’t talk about abortion,” said the 46-year-old artist, who considers herself a feminist. “I’m at a maximum strategic level, and I don’t think Lula has to talk about abortion. Then we talk about next year, you know? We need to win this election.”

Lula said in April that abortion should be “everyone’s right” and became the target of criticism from opponents, who sought to exploit the resistance that evangelicals and other expressive segments of the electorate impose to changes in legislation on the subject.

A day later, PT said he was personally against abortion, but defended the care of women who wish to have it in the public health network. Brazilian law allows the practice in case of rape, risk to the life of the pregnant woman and anencephalic fetuses.

According to a Genial/Quaest poll carried out in May, 50% of voters said that the position on the subject decreases the chance of voting for a candidate. Another 40% said that the issue does not influence, and 5% said that it increases the chance of voting for the candidate.

Although he defends Lula’s silence to avoid electoral losses, Ribeiro criticized colleagues who avoid publicly committing themselves to supporting candidates. “I’m having trouble continuing to talk to friends who don’t take a stand,” he said, without naming names.

Ribeiro is showing in São Paulo with the monologue “Pós-F”, adaptation of a book released by actress Fernanda Young in 2018, a year before her early death, after an asthmatic crisis. The work brings together reflections on various subjects, such as feminism, machismo and harassment.

The play premiered during the pandemic with live broadcasts over the internet and was staged again a month ago with the audience, at Teatro Porto Seguro, in São Paulo. Directed by actress Mika Lins, the show will be on display until June 26.

Ribeiro said that Young’s book interested her because it offered the public a frank discussion of feminism. She thinks that feminists should more openly admit their own contradictions and said that for this it is necessary to “take hygiene” out of the movement’s discourse.

“When I say taking the hygiene off, it’s saying: ‘Look, I’m a feminist, but I’m still sexist, I’m the product of my time. I have mistakes, I was raised thinking that women compete with women,'” said the actress. “It is in this sense that I say take care of hygiene, speak the truth.”

At Young’s suggestion, the play’s original project called for her and Ribeiro to act together on stage. “There would be two Fernandas on stage, so she could fight with herself”, explains the actress. “She was very fond of disagreeing with herself.”

With the death of the writer, Ribeiro decided to adapt the text and turn it into a monologue. “I thought it was sadder not to do the project than to do it without Fernanda”, he says. “The artist leaves a work and it’s a way you have to say: ‘Death, beauty, you don’t take them all’.”