(20 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brasilia, Brazil – 19 June 2024
1.Woman speaking into megaphone at a protest in front of National Congress to denounce a bill that would make the punishment for any abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy equivalent to homicide
2. Demonstrators chanting (Portuguese) “Children are not mothers and rapist are not fathers”
3. Demonstrators holding flags and posters
4. Demonstrators chanting (Portuguese) “Lira (President of Lower house) out!”
5.SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Elisabeth Hernandes, public official:
“What is happening here is a fight by women to avoid a setback in our rights, which are always being threatened. There is a bill that wants to punish the girl who has an abortion and protect the rapist. And we are fighting against it here. We do not accept setbacks against women’s rights.”
6. Demonstrator holding a banner reading (Portuguese) “A child is not a mother. No to bill 1904”
7. Woman addressing the crowd
8. Woman holding banners
9. Poster reading (Portuguese) “Arthur Lira supports child pregnancy. He is the enemy of girls and women!”
10. Poster with a picture of Arthur Lira, President of the Lower House, reading (Portuguese) “Against the bill 1904/24. Lira, out”
11. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Chico Alencar, Federal Deputy:
“Society’s reaction surprised them (backers of the bill) and there continues to be a strong, beautiful reaction here, led by women who are facing up to centuries of patriarchy and machismo. So, they (bill’s supporters) are backing down, which is very important because we want this bill not to go to debate, but to the archive.”
12. Group of demonstrators holding flags in front of Congress building
13. Various of a group of women dressed as characters from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
14. Various of people wearing stickers reading (Portuguese) “A child is not a mother”.
15. flag fluttering in the sunlight
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of Brazil’s National Congress in Brasilia on Wednesday to protest a bill that would further criminalize abortions.
Bearing placards, stickers and banners emblazoned with the slogan ‘a child is not a mother’ the protesters chanted slogans against the bill and its backers.
Some women dressed in the emblematic red cloaks and white bonnets made famous by the TV adaptation of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel set in a patriarchal theocracy.
If passed, the bill would treat the termination of a pregnancy after 22 weeks as homicide.
Proposed by conservative lawmakers and heading for a vote in the lower house, the bill would also apply in cases of rape.
Critics say women who seek an abortion so late are mostly child rape victims, as their pregnancies tend to be detected later.
Brazil only permits abortion in cases of rape if there is an evident risk to the mother’s life or if the fetus has no functioning brain.
Aside from those exceptions, Brazil’s penal code imposes between one and three years jail time for women who end a pregnancy.
Some Brazilian women fly abroad in order to obtain abortions.
If the bill becomes law, the sentence would rise to between six and 20 years when an abortion is performed after 22 weeks.
Critics have highlighted that would mean convicted rapists could receive lesser sentences than their victims.
Experts say that late access to abortion reflects inequalities in health care.
Children, poor women, Black women and those living in rural areas are particularly at risk.
AP Video by Leandro Moura
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