17/06/2024 – 15:10
By acclamation, the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association approved this Monday, 17, an opinion in which it classifies as unconstitutional and illegal the bill that equates abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy to the crime of homicide, including in cases of rape and other hypotheses provided for by law. The text ends up proposing a higher penalty for victims of sexual violence than that applied to rapists.
The lawyers highlight the ‘total rejection and repudiation’ of the PL and call for its shelving, opposing “any legislative proposal that limits the current criminal law”. The opinion will be forwarded to the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. Furthermore, in the document, the entity also indicates that, if the PL advances, the issue must be taken to the Federal Supreme Court, to repair “possible damage to the rights of girls and women”.
“Rape victims, girls and women, do not need mercy, but respect from the State! Let us reserve prison for its violators!”, emphasizes the document.
According to the OAB, the proposed criminalization constitutes “a serious violation of the human rights of women and girls hard won throughout history, flagrantly violating the values of the democratic rule of law and violating precepts of the Federal Constitution and ratified international Human Rights Treaties and Conventions by the Brazilian State”.
The document approved this Monday was prepared by a commission formed by five federal counselors from the OAB: Silvia Virginia Silva de Souza (SP), Ana Cláudia Pirajá Bandeira (PR), Aurilene Uchôa de Brito (AP), Katianne Wirna Rodrigues Cruz Aragão (CE ) and Helcinkia Albuquerque dos Santos (AC). In 41 pages, the group outlines the history of the criminalization of abortion in Brazil, makes observations about public health and points out violations of constitutional principles.
The commission highlighted, for example, that abortion is a social reality, pointing out how religiously-based bills “make unity of thought on the complex issue unfeasible”, even in a secular State. According to lawyers, limiting the gestation period for legal abortion is not a question of criminal law. In this area, state intervention is “more invasive and harmful”, they warn.
“The Bill, by suggesting a temporal limitation above 22 weeks of gestation for the exercise of the permissive criminal norm (sentimental approach), and by imposing the penalty of homicide on that raped girl or woman who, among the options of being arrested for The crime of abortion, or having a child from the rapist, chose to have an abortion, goes back to the Middle Ages, and is similar to the banishment of women who are victims of rape,” the opinion states.
According to the OAB counselors, forcing victims to maintain a pregnancy resulting from rape or that poses a serious risk to the pregnant woman’s life (another hypothesis of legal abortion) implies “inhumane, degrading treatment, equivalent to torture”.
“The obligation to maintain pregnancy in the form proposed by the PL, imposes on girls and women true punishment for acts that they did not commit, on the contrary, they were victims due to their vulnerability, however, contrary to what is preached in the state of social well-being, what the legislator intends is to apply ‘criminal treatment’ to them, stigmatizing them and giving them the social label of murderers”, emphasizes the opinion.
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