“Abortion is a public health issue.” This is the opinion of healthcare professionals, feminists, managers, and ministers of State in Brazil. Despite the vocal furor on the topic, public debate on the decriminalization of abortion moves forward at a slow pace. The main counterforce is a moral one, an overlay of religious and philosophical beliefs upon the democratic legal order. The recent decision of Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court to allow abortion in cases of anencephaly of the fetus was the single legal alteration of the Penal Code in 70 years. There are bills in Congress proposing the unrestricted criminalization of abortion — even in cases of rape or risk of death for women.
