Four health and bioethics entities filed a lawsuit at the Federal Supreme Court (STF) with a request for an injunction to overturn a manual of the Ministry of Health that contravenes the 1940 Penal Code, distorts technical data and creates obstacles to the performance of legal abortion in situations provided for by law.
Among other things, the federal government guide states that all abortion is a crime and that, therefore, there is no legal termination of pregnancy in Brazil. He also places the gestational age of 22 weeks as a limit for the procedure, which has no legal support.
The action, an ADPF (Argument of Noncompliance with a Fundamental Precept), is signed by SBB (Brazilian Society of Bioethics), Abrasco (Brazilian Association of Collective Health, Cebes (Brazilian Center for Health Studies) and Rede Unida.
The expectation of the entities is the president of the Supreme, Luiz Fux, to manifest himself this Thursday (30), Luiz Fux. The court goes into recess this Friday (1st), and, also during the period when he is on duty, Fux will be able to decide on the injunction or distribute the case.
Last week, an articulation of 78 entities, study groups and legal clinics from Brazilian universities sent a statement to the Ministry of Health asking for the guide to be revoked. Both the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, and the Secretary of Primary Care of the Ministry of Health, Raphael Câmara, have already spoken out in defense of the federal government’s guide.
According to the lawyer in the case, Henderson Furst, president of the bioethics commission of the OAB-SP, the primary objective of the action is to immediately suspend the technical note from the Ministry of Health, which, among other things, defines as a criterion for performing a legal abortion. the time limit of 22 weeks of gestation.
“It creates a barrier that the law does not establish and does not authorize to institute! Based on supposed scientific methodological criteria, it establishes that the abortion procedure can only be performed until the 22nd gestational week and, after that, premature delivery must be performed, stating that there is no legal support for abortion ‘of the product of conception in cases of sexual violence'”, says an excerpt from the lawsuit.
The suit asks for the declaration of unconstitutionality of any act of the Executive, Legislative or Judiciary branches, which restricts access to legal abortion. It also asks that the omission and barriers that the Ministry of Health have created for women and girls who need to carry out the termination of pregnancy in the cases provided for by law be recognized.
“We have to emphasize that this action is to comply with the law that is being disrespected. It is not to expand abortion, there is no controversy. Only the controversy created by the Ministry of Health itself.”
Since 1940, the Brazilian Penal Code has established that abortion can legally occur in cases where the pregnancy results from rape and when there is no other way to save the life of the pregnant woman. In 2012, a third situation, cases of pregnancy of an anencephalic fetus, was authorized by the STF.
According to the lawsuit, “in recent years all sorts of obstacles – including institutional and administrative restrictions – have been raised to make it difficult or prevent the realization of legal abortion.”
Currently, in Brazil, although the official list of the Ministry of Health shows 1,143 hospitals qualified to perform the abortion procedure, most of them in the Southeast region, studies indicate that most of these institutions, when contacted, refused to provide the legal abortion service.
The lawsuit also lists a series of violations of reproductive rights and institutionalized violence that have taken place in recent years, such as that of an 11-year-old girl from Santa Catarina, who, pregnant with the rapist, was denied the procedure in the hospital and who, later, when appealing to Justice, was forced to give up the interruption that is guaranteed by law.
On Tuesday (28), a public hearing held by the Ministry of Health supported the anti-abortion position that appears in the booklet released by the federal government earlier this month.
Of the 20 participants, 13 endorsed the opinion of the Secretariat of Primary Care of the Ministry of Health, responsible for the new guidelines.
Judge Joana Ribeiro Zimmer, who is being investigated for making it difficult for an 11-year-old rape victim to have an abortion in Santa Catarina, was invited by the ministry, but did not attend.
Chad-98Weaver, a distinguished author at NewsBulletin247, excels in the craft of article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a penchant for storytelling, Chad delivers informative and engaging content that resonates with readers across various subjects. His contributions are a testament to his dedication and expertise in the field of journalism.
