Thousands pour into streets of Rio to protest Brazil vote to ban abortion even when a woman's life is in danger

Angry: Protesters in Brazil are furious at plans to make abortion illegal under all circumstances
REUTERS
Eleanor Rose14 November 2017

Thousands of women have marched through the streets of Rio de Janeiro to protest a proposed ban on abortions in Brazil even when the pregnancy endangers a woman's life.

Police fired tear gas on crowds when scuffles broke out between protesters and police outside the Rio state legislature.

Abortion is currently legal in Brazil in cases of rape, if a pregnancy threatens a woman's life, or if the fetus has anencephaly, a brain defect.

However the congressional committee last week adopted a measure that would strip away those exceptions, prompting widespread outrage even though many Brazilians hold conservative views on abortion.

Many of the women at Monday's march carried children in their arms or on their shoulders, chanting: "Our bodies are ours!"

Rodrigo Maia, speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, has said that any ban on abortion without an exception for rape would not pass his chamber.

'My body, my rules': A young woman joins the protest in Rio
REUTERS

The measure is part of a constitutional amendment, so it would need an overwhelming majority in both Congress's lower house and the Senate to become law.

The demonstration in Rio was one of several organised in cities around Brazil on Monday. Women in Rio carried signs reading "Secular uterus" and "I don't deserve to bear the child of my rapist".

Others called for broader legalisation of abortion.

While Brazilian law severely restricts abortion, in practice wealthy women tend to have access to safe procedures in private clinics, while the poor often rely on risky ones.

An academic survey partially funded by the Ministry of Health estimated that more than 400,000 women had had an abortion in Brazil in 2015.

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