The rise, in the various sectors of society, in addition to the new way of dealing with sexuality with greater freedom, brought new priorities to contemporary women (such as studying and working for example), leaving, many times, the idea of getting Pregnant and raising a family behind.
Due to these factors, the pregnancy and the ways to avoid it turned into an important field for the acid debate. So, abortion — the act of interrupting a pregnancy — is a taboo. The subject is controversial, because it isn’t just about personal training and opinion, but also involves the legal and public health spheres and in all areas of analysis, it divides women’s opinion.
To better understand the subject, people from different groups involved in this matter have been interviewed, such as students of Cásper Líbero University, Gynecologists and Lawyers, in order to show the various angles of this discussion.
Within the College, most of the interviewed, 88%, proved to be pro-choice. However, it is extremely important to note that, among them, some do not agree with the act of aborting itself, but with the decriminalization and legalization of the practice because, as well as the Journalism student Juliana Avila claims, “A person can be in favor of legalization/regulation of abortion, but can stand against to position themselves about the practice, because there are two completely different fields.”
Decriminalizing consists of removing from the legal sphere the act of interrupting the pregnancy voluntarily, leaving in the sphere of health and consciousness of women, as well as Isabella Mendes, first-year advertising argued: “It has to be a condition for the woman, she wants to have the child or not, because it’s her body and no one elses. It’s her body and not of the State, it’s her body and not the man’s.”. Although most respondents standed themselves in favor of decriminalization, some people believe that “abortion is a practice that should be punished in some way, because somehow, you are taking someone’s life”, as suggested Melissa. Remember that, at the end of 2016, the first Chamber of the Supreme Court decided that the abortion until the third month of pregnancy should not be deemed a crime and, despite the decision has been taken in this specific case, it already represents a major breakthrough in Brazil.
On the other hand the legalization of abortion is an issue which is further from being resolved, as the lawyer Tamiris Rossetto said: “Our current law considers that there is life from conception and, therefore, from the conception the unborn have rights such as life, the fundamentals of the human person that are constitutional and these fundamental rights cannot be changed due to the eternity clause of our Constitution.” The practice of interrupting pregnancy is legal in cases of rape (humanitarian abortion), when the pregnancy offers risk to the mother’s life (abortion) and, in some specific cases and legally analyzed cases, on condition that the fetus be anencephaly. In other cases, “Any bill to legalize abortion, while the current Constitution is the current, is unconstitutional.”
It is important to stress that, when abortion is legal, the State offers the minimum conditions for the implementation of the Act and, for this reason, all the interviewed of Casper, who lead in favor, consider paramount the legalization, so as the women have more security and physical and emotional support when opting for this practice.
Analyzing the issue from the public health’s perspective, the thread enters a socio-economic obstacle as well: abortion in Brazil is only banned for poor women, as Giovanna Liviero declares, “a woman who has money, will have access to doctors, who will have the structure and necessary hygiene to perform the abortion, because money can buy all these comfort.” At this point, the biggest problem comes out, when the poor woman resorts to a clandestine clinic and is subjected to assorted risks, including death. For this reason, the gynecologist S.O believes that “If the abortions will happen anyway, for bidden or not, it is better to be performed by doctors at the beginning of the pregnancy.”
A final factor quite present in the lines of abortion-friendly University is that the practice is closely linked to the individual opinion of women and therefore legalization is required as a matter of public health, so that the religious aspect involved in the discussion will be considered only on the woman’s personal choice to make whether or not the termination of pregnancy and not the laws which affect them all because the State is secular and can’t follow guidelines of no current religious, as the journalism student, Giovana, claimed.
Even though the minority of interviewed has stood against abortion, it is important to give space to understand the complexity of the subject. 12% of the girls who do not agree with the act based their answers on the idea of life begins ate the conception, like Camila Cristina indicated: “From designing the fetus is a life.” Beyond the fear by making abortion a legal practice could cause a trivialization in the act and, consequently, the order of the measures of pregnancy prevention.
For all these reasons, part of the students believes that investment in education is crucial to aware about contraception and pregnancy. Although the opinions contained in this article are different, it is worth mentioning that the purpose of this isn’t to conclude the matter, but to expose the many faces of the same issue. Abortion should not be a closed subject, it should be discussed among women, so that, less sacrifices are made.