The Brazilian Episcopate stated this Friday that it considers “important” the approval of the controversial bill that seeks to criminally equate the abortion from 22 weeks of pregnancy with homicide, even in cases of rape.
O National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) highlighted in an official note its position “in defense of the integrity, inviolability and dignity of human life, from conception to natural death”.
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The entity argued that the proposal, drawn up by the most extremist forces in a Congress dominated by the right and center-right, “plays the role of inhibiting the death caused by the baby before the end of the pregnancy”.
The initiative proposes, through a modification of the Civil Code, prison sentences similar to those of homicide for women who terminate a pregnancy after 22 weeks.
“After this gestational age, many babies survive when they are born. So why kill them? Why this death wish? Why not avoid the trauma of abortion and, after birth, if the mother so desires, legally hand over the child to the love and care of an adoptive family? “Let the woman and baby live.” expressed the CNBB.
If it goes ahead, with the approval of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, abortion under these conditions, including that resulting from rape, would be punished as “simple homicide”. typified in Brazil with penalties ranging between 6 and 20 years in prison.
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In this way, women victims of rape who have an abortion when they are almost 6 months pregnant would face greater sentences than those of their attackers, whose sentences vary between 6 and 12 years in prison.
The project took a new step in the Chamber on Wednesday, after the majority approved its analysis as a matter of urgency, which in practice speeds up its processing by avoiding its analysis in the respective parliamentary committees.
However, the Brazilian bishops pointed out that the right to life “is threatened” and, therefore, consider the approval of the project “important”.
“The Catholic Church is still awaiting the approval of other bills that guarantee all the rights of the unborn child and pregnant woman”., they indicated.
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The initiative generated a wave of protests in feminist groups, as well as in other progressive sectors.
Various ministers of the president’s government Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva They also condemned the text, although the head of Institutional Relations, Alexandre PadilhaThey stressed to journalists that they do not intend to change the current legislation relating to abortion.
In Brazil, abortion is only permitted in cases of rape, fetal brain malformation and if the pregnancy puts the mother’s life at risk. In these three cases there is no maximum period for carrying out the procedure.
Source: Elcomercio
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