New Rio de Janeiro law requires public hospitals to display anti-abortion signs
A new law has just come into force in Rio de Janeiro requiring all public hospitals and clinics run by the municipal government to display anti-abortion signs bearing messages such as: 'Did you know that the unborn child is discarded as hospital waste?'
Reproductive rights activists view the act as the latest example of a growing trend across Brazil to further restrict access to abortion in a country that already has some of the world's most restrictive laws.
In Latin America's largest country, abortion is only legal in cases of rape, when the pregnant person's life is at risk, or if the foetus has anencephaly, a fatal brain disorder.
In recent years, however, politicians, doctors and even judges have taken steps to prevent abortions even in those circumstances.
Brazil's main hospital for such procedures, in São Paulo, stopped offering terminations after a decision by the city's mayor, a staunch supporter of former president Jair Bolsonaro, a strident anti-abortion advocate.
A congressman from his party proposed a bill punishing abortions after 22 weeks – even in cases of rape or risk to life – with up to 20 years in prison.
The federal medical council, which is reportedly dominated by Bolsonaro loyalists, last year banned doctors from using the safest method recommended by the World Health Organization for pregnancies over 22 weeks – a measure later deemed illegal by Brazil's supreme court.
'This is a direct result of the Bolsonaro years in power,' said anthropologist Debora Diniz, a professor at the University of Brasília and one of the country's leading reproductive rights researchers and activists.
She acknowledges that the dispute between pro- and anti-abortion positions is not new.
Diniz herself had to leave the country in 2018 after receiving death threats for her involvement in a campaign to push the supreme court to discuss decriminalising abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy – a reform that ultimately stalled.
What has changed now, she says, is that the issue, once confined to the federal level, has become 'scattered' across local and regional authorities.
'Authoritarian governments in Latin America have a particular trait: they don't just disappear when their leader leaves office. Bolsonaro may be gone, but forces aligned with him and his ideas have occupied bodies like the medical council,' said Diniz.
Such attempts are even more harmful given that legal abortion is not widely available across Brazil – only 4% of Brazilian cities have facilities and trained professionals to carry out the procedure, and that does not include even all state capitals.
In the state of Goiás, a 13-year-old girl who had been raped turned to the courts after she was denied a legal abortion at a hospital, but a judge prohibited any method that would induce the death of the foetus. A higher court eventually authorised the abortion.
In that state, the governor – also a Bolsonaro loyalist – signed a law requiring women seeking a legal abortion to first listen to the foetal heartbeat.
Rio's anti-abortion signs law was approved last Friday by Mayor Eduardo Paes – who is not a Bolsonaro supporter and is aligned with the current leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The mayor's decision not to veto the law – which was proposed by three far-right city councillors – is being seen as a political move, as he is expected to run for state governor next year.
Under the law, hospitals providing abortions must also display signs saying: 'You have the right to give your baby up for adoption anonymously … Give life a chance!' and 'Abortion can lead to consequences such as infertility, psychological problems, infections and even death.'
Diniz said the second sign was even more problematic as there is no scientific evidence that abortion, when carried out safely and with medical support, causes any of those effects.
'This law is perverse because it is based on a false narrative of 'care' for women and girls, when in fact it is persecuting them,' said Diniz.
On Tuesday, a public prosecutor filed a lawsuit arguing that the law is unconstitutional and requesting that the city government be barred from putting up the signs. The case is yet to be reviewed by a judge.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Photos of top surfing dogs catching waves at Huntington Beach
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
BEL MOONEY: Why is it called ‘infanticide' to kill a newborn child, yet it will soon be legal to end the life of a baby when it's fully formed in the womb?
There are times in life when you shake yourself hard, as if wishing to awaken from sleep, only to find that the nightmare is all too present and frighteningly real. So I felt when our representatives in His Majesty's Government, elected MPs in the country we like to call the 'Mother of Parliaments', gave a resounding 'Yes' to making it legal for any woman to pop a pill at any time in a pregnancy – and terminate the baby in her womb.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- The Independent
Nearly 600 heat-related deaths expected in UK heatwave, researchers estimate
Nearly 600 people in England and Wales are predicted to die as a result of this week's heatwave, researchers have found. Experts at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Imperial College London used decades of UK data to predict excess mortality during the hot temperatures from Thursday to Sunday. Their study, released on Saturday, forecasts that around 570 people will die because of the heat over the four days. The excess deaths are estimated to peak at 266 on Saturday when the heat will be at its most intense. London is predicted to have the greatest number of excess deaths with 129. The researchers said their assessment highlights how extreme heat poses a growing threat to public health in the UK. It follows a World Weather Attribution (WWA) research group study published on Friday which found the heatwave has been made about 100 times more likely and 2-4C hotter due to climate change. Dr Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, lecturer at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, said: 'Heatwaves are silent killers – people who lose their lives in them typically have pre-existing health conditions and rarely have heat listed as a contributing cause of death. 'This real-time analysis reveals the hidden toll of heatwaves and we want it to help raise the alarm. 'Heatwaves are an underappreciated threat in the UK and they're becoming more dangerous with climate change.' Dr Konstantinoudis warned that people should follow heat-health advice this weekend and check on older people, particularly those living alone. Temperatures had been forecast to hit 32C across the South East on Saturday and had already reached that level on Thursday in London. The UK Health Security Agency issued an amber heat-health alert covering all of England to warn vulnerable populations of the health risks, including 'a rise in deaths'. Dozens of people required treatment for heat-related illness at Royal Ascot on Thursday. The researchers used findings from published research on the relationship between heat and the number of daily deaths, regardless of the cause, in 34,753 areas of England and Wales. They combined these with high-resolution weather forecasts from the Copernicus climate change service to estimate how many heat-related deaths will occur. They estimated that 114 excess deaths would have occurred on Thursday, 152 on Friday, 266 on Saturday and 37 deaths on Sunday, when temperatures will fall to the mid-20s. People above 65 are expected to be hardest hit, with 488 of the estimated excess deaths, the report said. But the experts also warn that heat can be life-threatening for all ages, with 82 deaths estimated for people aged under 65. They also note that the analysis does not account for the effect of the heatwave occurring early in summer before people are acclimatised to hot temperatures, meaning deaths could be underestimated. A recent report by the UK Climate Change Committee estimated that heat-related deaths could rise to more than 10,000 in an average year by 2050 if fossil fuel burning causes warming to reach 2C. UN scientists warned this week that the world is in 'crunch time' to limit warming and has three years left to prevent global average temperature rises exceeding 1.5C. Professor Antonio Gasparrini, of the LSHTM, said: 'Increases of just a degree or two can be the difference between life and death. 'Every fraction of a degree of warming will cause more hospital admissions and heat deaths, putting more strain on the NHS.' Dr Malcolm Mistry, assistant professor at the LSHTM, said: 'Exposure to temperatures in the high 20s or low 30s may not seem dangerous, but they can be fatal, particularly for people aged over 65, infants, pregnant people and those with pre-existing health conditions. 'Unless effective mitigation and adaptive measures are put in place in the coming years, the risk of large heat-related death events is set to increase in the UK – we have a large ageing population and warming is expected to increase to 2C by 2050 and as high as 3C this century.' Dr Lorna Powell, an NHS urgent care doctor in east London who was not involved in the study, said: 'We are seeing cases of heat-related illnesses rising in our urgent care departments. 'Heat exhaustion can quickly trigger more serious illnesses as dehydration sets in and the cardiovascular system becomes overwhelmed.'
