President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) reacted this Tuesday (22) to the news that Colombia will decriminalize abortion until the 24th week of pregnancy and said he will fight to “protect the lives” of Brazilian children.
“May God watch over the innocent lives of Colombian children, now subject to being taken with the consent of the State in their mothers’ wombs until their 6th month of pregnancy, without the slightest chance of defence,” the president wrote on Twitter. “As far as I’m concerned, I’ll fight to the end to protect the lives of our children.”
The conservative agenda is one of the main themes of Bolsonaro’s campaign, which has always been against abortion. During the 2018 campaign, he even said that if Congress one day passes a law that makes abortion more flexible, he would veto the proposal if he were president.
Bolsonaro is close to the evangelical electorate and seeks to be reelected this year, but large churches are already beginning to disembark from Bolsonarism. In polls of voting intentions, the current president is behind former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
Bolsonaro reacted to the decision of the Colombian Constitutional Court that, on Monday (21), stated that no Colombian pregnant woman can be tried for an abortion performed until the 24th week of pregnancy.
The decision was taken by five votes in favor and four against, removing abortion from the list of crimes in the Colombian Penal Code — when performed within that period.
The decision makes Colombia the top country in South America, in terms of population, to decriminalize the procedure — and the third major Latin American nation to do so in just over a year, along with Mexico and Argentina.
In the Mexican case, decriminalization is national, but states regulate the appeal according to decisions taken by local parliaments. Argentina passed through Congress a law on abortion only by the woman’s will until the 14th week of pregnancy, which can be performed in public clinics and hospitals, free of charge. In the region, abortion is still allowed and legal in Cuba, Uruguay and Guyana.
