Legal abortion is not able to preserve women's rights!

summay response #2

Lately many Brazilians have discussed the legal abortion. Now the abortion is not allowed legally except for two cases designated by the penal code in Brazil. However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) made a report on Brazilian’s abortion. So I am going to summarize an article and argue about it. The article is written by HRW and its title is “Brazil abortion”. That article introduced some statistical data, regulations and activities about the abortion in Brazil. First, the statistical data show that illegal abortion is a very serious problem in Brazil. According to the article, the illegal abortion has an estimated 250,000 women to be harmed; furthermore, it is the fourth leading cause motherly death in Brazil and the illegal abortion occurs to approximately one to four million annually. In fact, most abortions in Brazil happen illegally by the illegal hospitals and unsuitable medical doctors because all pregnant women who want the abortion have the reasonable cause. Designated by criminal law of Brazil. The reasonable cause for legal abortion is only two cases; one of them is the pregnancy by the rape or incest; another case is special condition of the pregnant woman who needs the abortion to save her life. So, many women, some medical doctor groups and some governor have the opinion against the illegal abortion because of the women rights movement to legalize the abortion in Brazil in 2005. That result from these activities is to accept legal abortion in special case. Moreover, in the past, legal abortion required the police report which verified that the pregnant woman is a victim of rape or incest; however, now it is not required. Second, this article deals with history of abortion in Brazil. According to it, all abortions had been illegal in Brazil regardless of any situation since 1890; however, this penal code of Brazil on abortion was modified to waive punishment as regard to two circumstances in 1940. for onething, one circumstance is when the pregnancy originated from an assault; another one is when a pregnant woman is harmed. And in 1979, most kinds of sexual advertisements were banned by presidential decree; in addition, these are still used. Even if the provision of criminal law on abortion was changed, now the Congress of Brazil has some bills to extend or to limit the situations for legal abortion. Moreover, Lula da Silva, one of the presidents of Brazil, strived to research about safe abortion in 2003 and the government of Brazil established a committee, which is composed of several representatives of societies such as the civil society, public official and congress members, for legalization of the abortion in Brazil. Nevertheless, I do not approve of the legalization of abortion for women's rights in Brazil because abortion is not suitable to preserve the women's rights, both the legal and illegal abortion disturb another person's rights.

First, the legalization of abortion is not available to protect women rights. Of course, in Brazil illegal abortion make many women be in harm and some of them happen to die. However, the pregnancy is caused by the sex with her boy friend even though the abortion is not allowed. All kinds of rights mean all kinds of duties. So if the sex with a sexual partner is a kind of human right, the pregnancy is a kind of duty following the sex. Accordingly, the committee for legalization of abortion will seek ways to prevent the pregnancy rather than amend the criminal law on abortion to waive punishment.

Next, abortion deprives a person’s life rather than preserve a pregnant woman who doesn’t want the pregnancy. It is the most important property of the abortion. A behavior has two vital factors which are preserving woman and killing a life. At this time, we need the rational judgment. And the most rational judgment is the situation which the pregnant woman can not avoid. It is defined well in the penal code of Brazil.

However, many Brazilians agree to legalizing the abortion except for the Catholic church and religious Brazilians. Especially, “the administration of Brazil has positive opinion about the legalization of abortion (Instituto Sensus, 2007)”. But in this result from the research, it showed many poor Brazilians to expect to be wealthy. In fact, “Brazil has the eighth largest economy in the world; however, people in Brazil are poor because of overflowing of the population (Population Resource Center, 2004)”. So many Brazilians agree with economical policy of Lula da Silva rather than approve the legalization of abortion. Therefore, Brazilians need more family plan or suitable contraception to develop the economy, rather than using the legal abortion to promote the economical development.

In conclusion, legal abortion is not a counterplan to enhance the women's rights as well as to solve the problem of the population in Brazil. Especially, I think that the administration of Brazil its perpetrating people. As a matter of fact, all people may wish to be rich and may need to earn more money. The administration of Brazil uses this desire for wealth. If the administration of Brazil hopes for people to be rich through the economical development and controlling its population, it will find out suitable contraception, available family planning and reasonable policy for economical promotion.

Reference

Abortion Brazil. (2006) Human Rights Watch, retrieved on July 12rd from the web site of Human rights watch.

Political and Socio-Economic Factors. (2004) Population Resource Center. Retrieved on July 14, 2007 from Population Resource Center’s web site.

President Lula Stays Popular in Brazil. (July first, 2007) Angus Reid Global Monitor. Retrieved on July 14th, 2007 from web site of Angus Reid Global Monitor.