Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Brasilia (Agenzia Fides) – With the decision made by the Constitution, Justice, and Citizenship Committee (CCJC) to reject the draft-bill that would have legalized abortion, the process of legalization of abortion by legislative powers has practically come to an end in Brazil. The Justice and Constitution Committee of the House of Representatives vetoed the bill last week in a 57-4 vote over the controversial bill that has been in Congress 17 years and whose last article took away all punishments existing in the Penal Code against abortion. The CCJC was the last committee where the bill decriminalizing abortion had the chance of being approved and passing on to an open vote in the Houses of Congress. However, the Congress members themselves decided to support the proposal made by the Speaker, Representative Eduardo Cunha, who after explaining the bill, gave the scientific and juridical reasons for rejecting it. According to the House of Representatives’ news agency, “the material will be placed in the archive if their is no other recourse, in the next 5 sessions, in order to be voted on by the entire House.” The National Catholic Bishops Conference of Brazil (CNBB) offered “a word of encouragement and recognition towards all the Representatives that voted in favor of the unborn,” in rejecting the bill that decriminalized abortion during the nine-months’ gestation period. The Bishops pointed out that after a long debate, the Representatives affirmed that the bill in question was unconstitutional as it violated the Brazilian Constitution, which states that “the right to life is the highest values from which all other rights derive.”
“Thus, the voice of a great majority of Brazilians, firmly against the practice of abortion and in favor of human life and dignity from conception until natural death, has been heard once more,” the CNBB said.
Pro-life sources stated that the Brazilian press has withheld the real objective of the bill, which was to decriminalize abortion any time during a pregnancy, not only until 12-weeks’ gestation period, as the public had been led to believe. According to the first article of the bill, abortion could only take place 90 days into the pregnancy. However, the last article nullifies all those specifications of the Penal Code that made this practice a crime. With that said, the pro-life movement affirmed that “all abortions would become legal in any circumstance, until the moment of birth, in spite of what was stated in the first article.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 14/7/2008)
