⚖️ Abortion and the courts in Brazil

How courts block or guarantee access to reproductive rights 

A group of progressive US state representatives traveled to Brazil this week to learn about abortion policy and the work of the pro-choice movement in the South American country.

As conservative US states have moved to restrict the termination of pregnancies since the country's Supreme Court ended the federal constitutional right to abortion with the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, members of the reproductive rights movement believe Brazil has lessons to give its northern neighbor.

“In the US we have this US exceptionalism … when actually, we realize when visiting other countries that we are similar or that they are even progressing,” said Jennifer Driver, senior director for reproductive rights at State Innovation Exchange, a nonprofit that organized the representatives’ visit, along with the Women’s Equality Center.

Abortion is illegal in Brazil, with three exceptions: in cases of rape, danger to the woman’s life, or fetal anencephaly, a fatal malformation. The first two exceptions are guaranteed by the 1940 penal code, while the latter resulted from a 2012 Supreme Court ruling, which also paved the way for courts to authorize legal abortions in other cases of fetal non-viability.

In discussions with feminist activists, federal lawmakers and medical professionals, the US group notably broached the role of the judiciary in safeguarding reproductive rights. While in the US, courts have largely acted against abortion access, the landscape is a little more nuanced in Brazil.

Barriers to abortion access

Despite the exceptions guaranteed in law, there are myriad obstacles to women and girls’ access to legal abortion in Brazil. These range from social stigma to the objection of medical professionals and the absence of legal abortion services – only 3.6% of Brazil’s more than 5,500 municipalities offer pregnancy terminations as part of their public health system. 

An average 2,000 legal abortions are performed every year in public hospitals, representing just a fraction of the 5 million Brazilian women who have had an abortion, per the 2023 national abortion survey (PNA).

On top of this, Brazil has not been immune to the global backlash against reproductive rights. Conservative sectors emboldened by the far-right presidency of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023) and the wins of the anti-abortion movement in places like the US have been pushing to further restrict the already limited right to abortion in Brazil, notably pushing their agenda in Congress.

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