This two-page fact sheet is adapted from a 2013 Ipas report investigating the impact of criminal abortion laws on women, their families and health-care providers in three South American countries—Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina.
Country: Brazil
Implementing international human rights recommendations to improve obstetric care in Brazil
Advocacy for access to safe legal abortion: Similarities in the impact of abortion’s illegality on women’s health and health care in Pernambuco, Bahia, Paraíba, Mato Grosso do Sul e Rio de Janeiro
Pienselo bien
Zika virus infection in Brazil and human rights obligations
Brazil’s criminal abortion laws are killing women
Because Brazilian law only permits abortion in cases of rape, fetal anencephaly, or risk to life, in 2012 the country’s Ministry of Health reported only 1,626 legal abortions in a nation with 203 million people. However, an estimated one million Brazilian women have abortions every year. Many of those women, particularly those without the financial or social resources to see a well-trained, willing provider, run a huge legal risk when they decide to end an unwanted pregnancy. The physical consequences also can be devastating.
Brazilian adolescents’ knowledge and beliefs about abortion methods: A school-based internet inquiry
Cuando el aborto es un crimen: La Amenaza para mujeres vulnerables en América Latina
When Abortion is a Crime: The threat to vulnerable women in Latin America
When Abortion is a Crime: Video Library
View videos from around the world about abortion.