Juliana Andrade
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - A commission created in April to debate changes in the country's abortion legislation decided to recommend that the voluntary interruption of pregnancy be decriminalized. The commission includes representatives of the Executive branch, the Congress, and society.

"The final result is a proposal to revise the legislation and, it could not be otherwise, favor decriminalization. We understand that, through decriminalization, you establish standards of care," the deputy secretary of the Special Secretariat for Women's Policies, Maria Laura Pinheiro, who coordinated the work of the commission. said yesterday (2).

According to Pinheiro, the proposal assures women access to abortion procedures in both the government-run health system and in services offered by health plans, under the following conditions: up to the twelfth week of pregnancy, for all women; and up to the twenty-second week, if the pregnancy was the result of rape.

In cases of fetal malformation or fatal risk to the mother, the period for interrupting the pregnancy was not defined and should be determined by the physician. This topic is being debated in Brasília at the international seminar, "Legal Reform to Advance in the Protection of Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Brazil."

Translation: David Silberstein