Brasil: Down with the abominable PL 1904/24! Decriminalize Abortion Now!
We publish an unofficial translation of the article of Movimento Feminino Popular (Popular Women’s Movement) from Brasil.
In the last month, the entire Brazilian society found itself facing a reactionary offensive manifested in the form of an abominable Project of Law (PL 1904/24), known as the rapist’s PL or the child maternity PL, which was presented as a measure of urgency in this congress of scoundrels, reactionaries, anti-people and misogynists. Among the absurdities presented in this project is the equation of abortion with the crime of homicide and the limitation of the time for carrying out an abortion, in the cases provided for by law, to a maximum of 22 weeks of gestation. The nonsense of such an issue, if approved by the legislature, places the raped woman who becomes pregnant and has an abortion in the condition of a criminal and at risk of serving a greater sentence than the ones of the perpetrator of the violence she suffered. In addition to being raped, she faces the dilemma of having a child that deepens her trauma or having an abortion and being imprisoned for up to 20 years. And of course we can conclude that this will mainly affect poor women, from the oppressed classes in our country, those who cannot buy their rights with money, as the rich do without the risk of being convicted.
In front of very serious threats and increase in criminalization and violation of the rights of women among the people, there is a widespread reaction from public opinion. Signal of the current time. The far-right scoundrel miscalculated their movement in the anti-abortion crusade. Instead of generating greater anti-abortion commotion, broad sectors of society began to condemn the PL, which came to be known as the rapist PL or the child pregnancy PL. Research shows that in Brazil more than 80% of people, even those who are against abortion in general, are against the criminalization of women who have it. Even sectors of churches that are supposedly under the control of the extreme right have taken a stand against the abominable project, which represents one of the biggest attacks on women’s rights in Brazil. Despite the cowardice of the Lula government, which only manifested itself after Arthur Lira retreated, demonstrating that he is in the hands of the center and lowering his head to the extreme right. Students, teachers, health professionals, proletarian women and the petite bourgeoisie have mobilized in several parts of the country against such a measure. The attitude of reactionaries in attacking the rights of women among the people, which is indeed criminal, can only generate more hatred and revolt against this entire system of exploitation. The Popular Women’s Movement once again raises high the flag for the decriminalization of abortion and in defense of the right to motherhood as part of our commitment and mission to develop this struggle by mobilizing women for their rights, all as part of the struggle for a New Democracy.
In countries dominated by imperialism, such as Brazil, where the immense majority of the exploited and oppressed masses on the Earth are found, billions of workers are subjected to the most vile exploitation, unemployment and underemployment, misery and hunger, epidemics of all kinds (like dengue currently in Brazil) and all sorts of injustices. Among these masses, women are condemned to an additional suffering: sexual oppression. Because, in addition to the three mountains that weigh on the people and the nation, namely: imperialism, the bourgeoisie and the latifundium, this fourth mountain also weighs on the shoulders of women. It manifests itself in individual domestic work, but also in all spheres of the family, which as the economic unit of the system, helps to extract surplus value from the worker and is fundamental to maintaining the level of exploitation of its workforce and, therefore, the rate of profit, in the capitalist system in its current stage of monopoly – imperialism, and in the different spaces of its social practice. In addition to economic exploitation, which takes place as a double shift, as women also work outside the home to help support the family, when not, as single mothers, bearing all family expenses, women also suffer abuse of all kinds: discrimination, harassment, rape, beatings and femicide. One of the most abominable of manifestations of this oppression in today’s society, but not only that, is the denial of women’s right to decide on reproduction and motherhood, in short, on their life and destiny. A fact that undermines the mystification that bourgeois and petit-bourgeois feminism proclaims about achieving equal rights for women and men in class society based on the exploitation of work, which is what is currently taking place all over the world. The decriminalization of abortion is an important achievement for women’s physical, mental and emotional health and requires the most energetic struggle where such a misogynistic law prevails.
New articles coming soon on the website and in the new MFP magazine.
For the decriminalization of abortion!
Down with rape and all sexual violence against women and children!
Awaken the women’s revolutionary fury!
MFP – Popular Women’s Movement
