Brazil: the obstacle course of women who abort in the middle of a pandemic

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By: Sarah Cozzolino Follow

In Brazil, abortion is illegal except in cases of sexual violence, anencephaly of the fetus or danger to the life of the mother. To be able to have an abortion, some women go to neighboring countries where the law allows. But with the pandemic and the closing of the borders, the situation becomes more complicated. And for those who could also have a legal abortion: only half of the legal abortion services operated in the country during the pandemic.

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Normally, Mariana could legally abort. She became pregnant as a result of rape, just before the start of the pandemic in Brazil . But in Para, the state where she lives, in the far north of the country, hospitals are saturated with coronavirus cases.
“  My neighbor died because of the lack of beds. So I started to think: we can't already take care of people with Covid, how could we take care of me? So I was very concerned, I didn't know if I was going to get there. But now I'm here, so I think I've already done half of it.  "

Mariana arrived in Sao Paulo two weeks ago. Her hospital appointment was postponed because the doctor who was to look after her was infected with coronavirus. Throughout her career, she was supported by the association “Milhas pour la vie des femmes”. "Milhas" in reference to "miles" for purchasing flights by plane. Because the association allows women to travel to have an abortion in a legal and safe way, in other neighboring countries such as Colombia.

In mid-March, the association's president, Juliana Reis, had planned a flight with nine women, but the borders closed overnight.
"  It's drama, it's epic ... We have had cases of women who wanted to cross the Amazon to return to Colombia on foot. And obviously we had lots of women who used questionable means to successfully interrupt their gestation. By "doubtful" I just mean not legal  . "

Because even if some women meet the criteria for legal abortion, they are often victims of discrimination. On several occasions, Juliana Reis had to report abuse by caregivers.
"  There are experiences of re-victimization, that is to say that he is told 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times what happened to him, almost as in a police investigation, to that she commits any contradiction.  "

No one in Mariana's entourage knows that she is having an abortion. With this experience, she says she realizes the hypocrisy of Brazilian society about abortion.
“  While some women can afford to have an abortion, others cannot. And they die trying to do it, at home, clandestinely. Children are abandoned, so it's a subject we need to talk about . "

According to a study, between 500,000 and a million Brazilian women abort each year and only 1,600 of these women do so legally.

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