Thousands protest proposal for total abortion ban in Brazil

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


The Associated Press

NOVEMBER 13, 2017 6:51 PM

RIO DE JANEIRO
Thousands of women marched through the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Monday to protest a recent congressional committee vote to make abortion illegal without exception in Brazil.

Many protesters carried their children in their arms or on their shoulders, shouting: "Our bodies are ours!" Some scuffles broke out between protesters and police when the march reached the Rio state legislature. Police fired tear gas, but calm soon returned.

Abortion is currently allowed in Brazil in cases of rape, a pregnancy that threatens a woman's life or a fetus with anencephaly, a birth defect involving the brain. But the congressional committee last week adopted a measure that would remove those exceptions, provoking widespread outrage though many Brazilians hold conservative views on abortion.

Rodrigo Maia, speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, has said that any ban on abortion without an exception for rape won't pass his chamber. The measure is part of a constitutional amendment, so it would need a super-majority in both Congress' lower house and the Senate to become law.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/news/article184428828.html

[sandensea]

1. Not content to impose Dickensian labor laws, Temer's now trying to push women into the 19th century

I might add that Brazil is one of the world's great success stories as far as birth control, reducing its birth rates from an average of 6 children per woman (over her lifetime) in the 1950s and '60s to 2 today.

Should these changes become law, and be enforced, they threaten to trigger a disastrous baby boom in what's already the world's 5th most populous country (210 million).

Thank you for digging this up, Judi.