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With the ascension of social medicine there is a reinforcement of binary representations of gender versed as a science threshold. The fragility, the pudency, the affective characteristics in detriment of the rational ones and the subjection of sexuality to the maternalism constituted the medical normalizations for the feminine [ 14 , 15 ]. The association of women to maternity, considered an innate biological instinct, built the normality parameters to the feminine sex prescribed by the masculine gaze.
The will to generate, give birth and motherhood were preponderant facts on the definition of a healthy and balanced organism settling the natural fate of women: get married, give birth, raise children, take care of the house, the husband and the children [ 9 ]. Such aspects also influenced the juridical world, because the definition of crime and offense followed a stereotype vision of the proper conduct to men and women.
Cesare Lombroso, Italian doctor and criminologist and one of the most famous exponents of the racist and mysoginist thinking of this phase of history, believed that women with outstanding erotism and intelligence did not have the maternal feeling, there so, were abnormality and dangerous creatures composing the group of the criminal, prostitutes and crazy that should be banished from society Lombroso and Ferrero apud Soihet, [ 15 ].
In general lines, those gender norms disseminating a world order unequal to men and women enrolled in Latin America from the European colonization remaining along the XIX century. In the scope of social relations, the masculine privileges on the field of economy, culture, politics and sexuality were backed by law, church recommendations and medical corporations that timidly were emerging [ 16 ].
The gender conventions dictated the life rules of men and women as outlined by the Civil Codes of the past centuries, drawn under the inspiration of Spanish and Portuguese law, heavily based on canonical principles.
In them, women were banned from acting in the public scope and their rights to property, property management, inheritance, and decision making in marriage remained limited. In addition, criminal law judged the crimes committed by the male and the female sex differently, whose judgments involving human rights honesty and male honor highlighted these sexist distortions [ 16 ]. Regarding Brazil, in , in the Criminal Code of the Empire, a device that considers abortion a crime that jeopardized security and human life itself, with the exception of non-punishment when abortion was committed by the pregnant woman herself.
The Criminal Code of the Republic of also did not punish women, but presaged punishment for the practice of abortion performed by third parties, with or without the consent of the pregnant woman, with aggravation if this resulted in her death. Concerning the permission of abortion involving sexual violence, the conception of jurists in general pointed out that the rape severely damaged male honor and dignity and tainted the offspring of the man who did not accept to support illegitimate children and pass on his inheritance.
Therefore, it was a mentality that followed patriarchal period customs and not necessarily a concern for women, their physical and emotional health. Although dated from , the provisions of the Criminal Code concerning abortion remain in force, but are obsolete and anachronistic for the contemporary society. That is, the law that governs abortion in Brazil was drawn in full dictatorial regime, in a socio-cultural context of rigid gender customs: few women worked outside home, drove cars, had a college degree, could choose whether or not to have children or even participated in movements, unions or actively on the political life of the nation.
But it could be said that, paradoxically, it was advanced for the time, especially if we consider the countless bills, contrary to sexual and reproductive rights, that are currently being processed in the National Congress and the more flexible achievements, values and customs and from the point of view of gender relations that we find today. The laws, roughly written by men, do not escape gender representations inserted in long term history.
That is, the inappropriate behavior according to sex within the family and society, as well as ethnic-racial characteristics influence the conception and definition of the offense and on the application of punishment on the transgression scope. Those discussions were also influenced by the emergence, on , of the contraceptive pills. The search for economical, subjective and social autonomy also became essential to this feminine body in the process of emancipation and the existence of the feminist movements that insurged, which also helped to delimit a self-fight field concerning other social movements [ 18 ].
Since then Brazilian women obtained a series of achievements, like more space and participation in society, public politics and specific laws to prevent and reduce violence against women and changes on the conservative mentality on the field of gender relations in the sense of more equality.
Chapter Five: Caio Fernando Abreu: Exploring AIDS in the Gay Metropolis Renato Russo (Campo Grande: Letra Livre Editora, ), Historians maintain as the opening date of abertura. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Brazil are among the most advanced in Latin America and the world, with LGBT people having marriage rights available nationwide since May , although LGBT people still face some social challenges. A lesbian couple from Rio Grande do Sul was the first to successfully.
Stands out the International Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in [ 20 ]; that states in its article 18 that rights of women and girls are inalienable; the International Conference on Population and Development, in Cairo in , asks the Estates for investment on familiar planning politics, the reduction of maternal mortality and the review of punitive laws that concern abortion; and the IV World Conference on Women, at the city of Beijing in China in , that requested to the government the use of gender perspective on the development of policies for women [ 21 ].
These UN meetings also helped to transpose the generic parameter of man western, white, heterosexual as a synonym for humanity, marking the liberal conception of the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of [ 22 ], extending the horizon of human rights for the inclusion and visibility of new subjects. They also revealed that the specifications, diversities and differences between men and women and among women themselves must be integrated into the discourse of human rights as factors of inequality and discrimination [ 23 , 24 ]. However, the inequalities between men and women are still significant in Brazil.
The voluntary abortion is not allowed by law yet, the participation of women on parliaments is minimal, the rates of domestic violence, of feminicide and maternal mortality are very high and, broadly, they still have the lower wages in the market for the same work developed when comparing to men.
In the last decades, the reversal has been enormous. Thus, there are many initiatives in parliaments throughout the country that try to stop achievements in the field of human rights when it involves sexuality and reproduction.
To be more emphatic, they are bills that try to prohibit emergency contraception, which strengthen the obstacles to the criminalization of homophobia and the recognition of rights to the homosexual population, as well as opposing the reformulation of restrictive legislation regarding abortion and of sex education programs in schools. From the religious field to the government policy scope there is a resurgence of fundamentalism and conservative forces that threaten the rights and lives of women.
One of the strategies of the conservative groups is to keep the National Congress always on the agenda of discussing abortion as a crime and incompatible with human values in defense of life. An example of this is the numerous appealing projects cited above. Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva PT , a progressive force, for example, who has already spoken publicly about the right of women to decide, signed the agreement with the Vatican in , which preaches religious teaching in schools, financial support and a number of other measures in the countercurrent of the Lay State.
In the sowing of patriarchal values, fundamentalists, oligarchies and religious sectors are the groups that most represent the obstacles to advancing the fight for the decriminalization of abortion in Brazil. Generally, they have a conservative discourse from the point of view of biomedical science and the laity of the state.
In the dispute for the concept of life, what prevails is the discourse of biological life from orthodox biomedicine and the mix of values of the State and Church, with strong articulation in the Executive. And if in one hand reproduction and motherhood continue to be treated as the fated destiny of women, on the other, adoption is not yet a valued alternative to motherhood. In addition, the dispute in the field of reproduction also occurs through the market, with the industry of products for babies and pregnant women, new reproductive technologies, last generation ultrasonographies, etc.
Among this context, the neoliberal field advances in the Brazilian political culture, going through the health issue with the growth of foundations and private health plans to the detriment of the Unified Health System SUS , It is also evident a scenario of high urban violence and at the same time indifference to this violence in most Brazilian urban centers. The marches that preach peace and not abortion, understood as a threat to life, start to appear, generally formed by the middle class who have a conservative vision of peace, since the fear of violence is what drives this kind of reaction by the average layers and other conservative groups, centered on their own navel.
There are also the strategies that the media has been adopting in relation to abortion, polarized by messages through soap operas and programs that are veiled or expressive against legalization and the frequent reports displayed in newspapers about the overflowing appearance of clandestine clinics in various regions of the country, as well as women leaving hospital in handcuffs for reports of unsafe abortion by doctors and other health professionals to the police. A research carried out by the Public Defense of Rio de Janeiro points out that the delations made by health institutions and professionals during emergency care for women by the practice of self-medication are more common than one can imagine and one of the main means of entry of patients into the penal system.
In Campo Grande, in the year , a case of spontaneous abortion was reported to the police by professionals from the Emergency Mobile Service SAMU and widely reported in the local press, suggesting that it was an intentional abortion and disseminated negative representations of the patient. Parts of a fetus were found in the toilet at the house of a married woman who requested emergency assistance from SAMU.
The medical help turned into a police case.
After receiving care at the residence by the SAMU team, she was taken by ambulance to Rosa Pedrossian Regional Hospital, where she received other medical care, but was kept under police surveillance and was released only after being interviewed. It is common the reports that disclose the cases of patients who provoked abortion, sought medical services resulting from complications, who leaves health institutions handcuffed after the care and are taken directly to the police station, in addition to the materials that denounce the clandestine clinics and their process of invasion by the police.
Clandestine clinics of abortion in Brazil have been, frequently, target of media reports and spectacularization. One of the involvement marks of media on public revelation of places that supposedly performed pregnancy interruption surgeries was the case of the ten thousand. Neide Mota Machado [ 25 , 26 ]. The pressure had effect. The medical reports of women were scrutinized by the police and, lately, by justice strong-arms [ 25 , 26 ].
The medical reports of the patients, handled without the presence of an expert, were included on the process as proof for the indictment. In order for the crime not to prescribe, the prosecution denounced all the ten thousand women [ 25 , 26 ]. That is, the medical reports served as basis to the process, especially the ones that had ultrasonography, positive pregnancy tests and forms signed by women authorizing the medical procedures.

Cases of prescription and ones with information judged incomplete by justice were discarded [ 25 , 26 , 28 ]. Such a measure resulted on the accusation of women for crimes of abortion. Of these, the first called to attend to the police station did not know what the intimation was about and were submitted to questioning without clarification of their rights, like the right to keep silent or having the presence of a lawyer or public defender.
This fact represents a violation of the right to full defense and the minimal judicial guarantees [ 27 ]. Only five men were sued on this stage [ 26 ] and, as the story went, it is estimated that less than 10 were indicted. During the judicial treatment of the case there was a sentence reversion based on the law 9.
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Poor women, generally, opted for community service, where they were obligated to make it on day care centers and schools, bringing moral and emotional embarrassment and strong self-blaming. It is established that the police mandate to close the Clinic did not authorize the apprehension of medical reports. The delegate that took the case, Dra. She also affirmed that it would not be possible to sue the women without information that were on the reports [ 26 ]. According to Art.
Not even a judicial ordercan suppress the mandatory protection of professional secrecy. In light of that, only women were indicted, but them all around 10, had their rights violated, even though both medical secrecy and their privacy were disrespected. However, something new and unexpected happened: the enigmatic death of NeideMota. There was also an used bottle of Lidocaine Hydrochloride, and a letter written by pencil between her bench and the passenger. About 3 years after the closing of the Family Planning Clinic, the jury trial that led to judgment the four employees that worked at Dr.
Despite the intense disclosure of the case on vehicles of mass communication, there were few people where the judgment took place. It was noticeable the attendance of friends and family of the defendants, students, law operators, and just five feminists from the city, among other actors made the timid and simple audience made by a group of a little more than 30 people.
Three members of the Prosecution Office, four defense lawyers, the judge, employees of the Forum and, posteriorly, the four indicted who entered escorted by policemen , and the seven juries members of the Verdict Council composed the actors framework in plenary. It all seemed too serious and gloomy, except for the striking presence of the press.
Journalists from various TV stations, from printed and online newspapers, made the event coverage with media ratio breaking the ice from the formalities and sobriety atmosphere. After the initial instructions from the judge, the judgment started with the argumentation of Siufi, defense lawyer of Simone Cantagessi, who questioned the judge about to whom had been delivered the expert forensic medical report about the medical records apprehended at the clinic. Siufi alerted that the report of indirect corpus delicti forensic exam already mentioned the material collected at the clinic, sustaining that the reports do not prove the materiality of the crime.
This fact would show the existence of ungrounded questions and would allow blurred inductions of the case assessment. In face of that, the lawyer defended the postponement of the Popular Jury in view of the wide possibility of conducting the legal process through tortuous ways. Another two requirements are worded by the lawyer: the withdraw of the police escort around the defendants and the removal of two of the present prosecutors under the allegation of over charge.
Concerning the forensic reports, this is in protocol and we will see about that. It also reveals a sense based on gender stereotypes, in which the feminine essence is not seen as dangerous or menacing by nature [ 31 ]. However, it does not redeem the situation. Resuming session the judge explained the procedures for formation and acting of the juries council, highlighting the principle of incommunicability between the members of the jury and, then, handed over copies of a document containing guidance to the juries staff. Concluding this act, the judge requested the entry of the four indicted in the plenary.
A mix of apprehension, anxiety, emotional exhaustion and fear was painted on the face of the defendants followed by female police officers. On the chairs pointed by his honor, the corporal image of the defendants revealed certain submission and gentleness characteristic of feminine socialization. One of them was visibly shaken and tears ran down her face.