Brazil's top court opens vote on decriminalizing abortion up to 12th week of pregnancy

Source: Associated Press

Brazil’s top court opens vote on decriminalizing abortion up to 12th week of pregnancy

BY MAURICIO SAVARESE
Updated 11:39 AM EDT, September 22, 2023

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s top court opened a session Friday that will decide whether abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy will be decriminalized nationwide.

The South American nation currently allows abortions only in cases of rape, an evident risk to the mother’s health or if the fetus has no functioning brain.

The Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Rosa Weber put the issue forward in an online session Friday and cast her vote in favor of the action. She will retire in October after she turns 75, the age limit for members of the court. Ten more justices are yet to vote, but there is no set date for when the hearing will continue.

Weber said in her decision that Brazil’s standing on abortions does not consider “equal protection of women’s fundamental rights by giving absolute prevalence of the guardianship of the potential life” — the fetus.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/brazil-abortion-supreme-court-decriminalization-90c4b92d4ea46d804c7b165871155329