06/14/2024 – 18:34
The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) published a note this Friday, 14th, in defense of the bill that equates the approach carried out after 22 weeks to the crime of homicide. The text, which is being processed in the Chamber of Deputies, was urgently approved last Tuesday, the 12th, and will go to the Plenary for a vote without the need to go through thematic committees to discuss the matter.
The entity says that it is not part of the “politicization and ideologization of this debate”, but claims to participate in the discussion because it is “profoundly ethical and human”.
“The discussion about PL 1904/2024 brings to light the cruel practice of fetal asystole in babies from 22 weeks of gestation, prohibited by the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) and currently authorized by injunction in the STF [Supremo Tribunal Federal]. This PL fulfills the role of preventing the caused death of the baby, prior to the end of the pregnancy”, she says.
The agency argues that from the gestational age of 22 weeks, if the birth is carried out, many babies survive. “So why kill them? Why this death wish? Why not avoid the trauma of miscarriage and, at the end of birth, if the mother so desires, legally hand over the child to the love and care of an adoptive family? Let’s allow the woman and the baby to live,” she declares.
The PL amends the Penal Code and sentences women who have an abortion after 22 weeks to imprisonment for between 6 and 20 years. Currently, the legal punishment for anyone who has an abortion is imprisonment for 1 to 3 years.
Legislation allows abortion in three situations, in cases of fetuses with anencephaly, when the woman is at risk of death and there is no other way to save her, and rape. With the change in the Penal Code, even if she is raped, the woman needs to continue with the management.
For the rapist, in some cases the sentence may be lower than that proposed in the PL. Currently, the aggressor is detained for 6 to 10 years, which can be extended to up to 12 years when there is serious violence. In cases where the victim is under 14 years old or considered vulnerable, the punishment is 8 to 15 years, which can be extended to 20 years.
For the CNBB, removing the baby conceived through rape is not the solution to punish the aggressor and the action “brings great physical, mental and spiritual suffering to the pregnant woman. Sometimes even death,” she says.
The text was signed by the president of the Conference and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Porto Alegre (RS), Dom Jaime Spengler, together with the archbishops and vice-presidents Dom João Justino de Medeiros Silva and Dom Paulo Jackson Nóbrega de Sousa, in addition to the bishop and general secretary Dom Ricardo Hoepers.
#CNBB #defends #project #equates #abortion #homicide #punishes #rape #victims