Public Note #46 - The fallacies and risks of the Ministry of Health's booklet on abortion

Booklet of the Ministry of Health - 2022 - Photo: Reproduction

The Arns Commission expresses its indignation with the contents of the booklet “Technical Assistance for Prevention, Evaluation and Conduct in Cases of Abortion” (original title in Portuguese: “Atenção Técnica para Prevenção, Avaliação e Conduta nos Casos de Abortamento”), released by the Ministry of Health on June 8, 2022, as a “guide to support health professionals and services”. Such a statement appears in the introduction of the document that aims to transmit “scientific evidence and reliable statistics” on abortion, “taking into account the defense of maternal and fetal life and the maximum respect for the legislation in force in the country.”

The booklet from the ministry led by physician Marcelo Queiroga, who has already bequeathed to the country his pitiful performance in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, lies not only when presenting its objectives. Throughout 68 pages, false information is accumulating in total disregard for the lives of women and, contrary to what it claims to consider, with undeniable intention to override the Brazilian legislation and science itself.

No wonder entities such as the Brazilian Association of Collective Health (Associação Brasileira de Saúde Coletiva – Abrasco), the Brazilian Center for Health Studies (Centro Brasileiro de Estudos da Saúde – Cebes), the Medical Network for the Right to Decide, the Feminist Network of Gynecologists and Obstetricians and the Institute of Bioethics, Human Rights and Gender (Instituto de Bioética, Direitos Humanos e Gênero – Anis), all renowned for their work in the field of reproductive health, went public to denounce this manual full of untruths and distortions, which is supposed to be distributed throughout the health system, with impact on medical professionals and services.

Among the false information, the following have stood out:

“Unsafe abortion is not a public health problem”. This is false, because maternal mortality is an important quality parameter of public policies and constitutes relevant data in healthcare planning, and it is the State's function to prevent it. In 2020, 155,139 post-abortion curettage procedures and 15,090 uterine evacuation procedures by aspiration were performed in the country, both employed in cases of previous unsafe abortion.

“Every abortion is a crime...”. In Brazil, since 1940, abortion is legal when the pregnant woman's life is at risk and when the pregnancy results from rape. By decision of the Federal Supreme Court in 2012, it ceases to be a crime when the fetus has anencephaly. And, in 2015, according to the understanding of the 3rd Panel of the Federal Supreme Court, every pregnant person victim of rape under the age of 14 is considered vulnerable, therefore with the right to termination of pregnancy.

“...but when the situations of justification/exclusion of illegality are proven after a police investigation, it (the abortion) is no longer punished”. This is totally false because there is no legal prerogative that abortion can only be performed upon police investigation or even judicial order. Furthermore, it is not the police's competence to investigate the medical decision to preserve the mother's life, nor is it the competence of health professionals to violate the principle of professional secrecy to report rape victims to the police.

In face of the seriousness of what this may represent, the Arns Commission feels the duty to publicly repudiate such a dangerous document, which echoes postures in no way anchored in the law and in science, and it is not by chance that it does so during an electoral period.

We reaffirm that, in a secular society such as the Brazilian one, the abortion issue must be treated within the scope of public health, and not guided by religious and dogmatic views, or by hidden interests. Creating obstacles to the abortion care guaranteed by law in the country, criminalizing it, turning the procedure into a police case, into professional intimidation, and, above all, into a situation that represents embarrassment and humiliation to the woman, should never be a guideline for a normative body like the Health Ministry.

The Arns Commission will never remain silent before situations that represent a step backward in human rights. This is exactly what this booklet from the Ministry of Health means for girls and women in general, but, in particular, for poor, non-white, and peripheral people, who are often victims of rape inside their own homes, by relatives or acquaintances, and who already encounter countless difficulties to access their rights every day. The social hypocrisy about abortion needs to be unveiled. And this booklet, besides being denounced, must be revoked and removed from circulation without delay.

We will defend women's right to life, with dignity and always!