LatinNews Daily Report - 13 April 2012

Brazil | Therapeutic abortion for anencephaly.  On 12 April the federal supreme court voted by eight to two in favour of legalising therapeutic abortion in the case of anencephaly. The ruling will permit women to have an abortion rather than having to carry a foetus diagnosed as anencephalic – which has zero chance of survival - to full term. Lilian Sepúlveda, of the centre for reproductive rights, welcomed the decision, while noting that “Brazil’s restrictive abortion laws are still very dangerous for women”. Brazil only permits abortion if the pregnancy puts the life of the woman in danger or is the result of rape. Supreme court magistrates Marco Aurélio Mello, Joaquim Barbosa, Rosa Webber, Luiz Fux, Carmen Lúcia, Carlos Ayres Britto, Gilmar Mendes and Celso de Melo voted in favour while Ricardo Lewandowski and the supreme court president, Cezar Peluso, voted against. Dias Tóffoli absented himself. Marco Aurélio Mello, author of the ruling, stated yesterday, “An anencephalic will never become a person. In synthesis, it is not a potential life but a certain death. Anencephaly is incompatible with life”.

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