On Thursday (11), members of the female caucus of the Chamber and of social movements asked for the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI) on the clandestine abortion in Brazil not to be installed. The CPI was authorized by the President of the Chamber, Arlindo Chinaglia, on Tuesday (9).

The requirement for the installation of a CPI, which counted with 210 signatures – 39 more than the minimum necessary – was headed by the Deputies Luiz Bassuma (PT-BA), Miguel Martini (PHS-MG) and Pastor Manoel Ferreira (PTB-RJ).

According to the requirement submitted to the Governing Board, the CPI should investigate the clandestine trade of abortive substances and the practice of abortion. In the requirement, Bassuma affirms that the clandestine trade of abortive substances constitutes a violation to Penal Code, which classifies abortion as a crime. (Articles 124 to 127).

It is about health, not about a CPI
For the Deputy Maria do Rosário (PT-RS), incriminating women who need to recur to abortion will not solve the problem. “That subject should not be addressed as a CPI case, but as a health issue. No criminal approach against women will solve that issue, especially in the case of those who are losing their life and that, in their despair, find a circumstance for their life. Let us stop only judging and not helping them”, he argued.

One of the authors of the request for the creation of the CPI, though, Deputy Miguel Martini (PHS-MG), rebates the argument that the investigation will harm women. “It is exactly the opposite. We are protecting them. Any abortion, even if performed with the greatest care, provokes an irreversible trauma, in the physical and psychic aspects. Therefore, anyone who practices it has to be punished. Life is a supreme gift and only God has the power to take it”, he argued.

Indictment and prison
According to the director of the Feminist Center of Studies and Assistance, Guacira de Oliveira, the CPI will expose women who need to recur to abortions. She affirmed that this fact has been happening in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where thousands of women registered in a clandestine abortion clinic can be convicted to prison. “10,000 women were indicted; 1,200 are being sued, accused of abortion, without even the right to a habeas corpus and to be heard. We will not advance regarding human rights just by criminalizing women”, she said.

Strategy
According to the Deputy Rita Camata (PMDB-ES), the Congress should contribute to the issue by seeking measures that broaden the access to family-planning policies. “We cannot legislate from a religious, moralist standpoint, but must think on social inclusion”, she highlighted.

According to her, the feminist caucus will establish a strategy to bar the CPI in February, when the Chamber’s works resume.

Worry
Arlindo Chinaglia said that, as a congressman, he worries about the CPI’s results in women’s lives. “It is evident that a CPI has an investigation character that may get to personal issues, in a rigorously inadequate way.”

He reminded, though, that, as the Chamber’s president, he needs to comply with its Internal Regiment. “It is the Governing Board’s duty to comply with the rules. The requirements for the installation of a CPI are the number of necessary signatures and a determined fact. That is analyzed by the technical assistance of the House”, he observed.

Report - Alexandre Pôrto/Rádio Câmara
Editing - João Pitella Junior/Rejane Xavier
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda