Abortion in Brazil is a crime, with penalties of one to three years of imprisonment for the recipient of the abortion, and one to four years of imprisonment for the doctor or any other person who performs the abortion on someone else. In three specific situations in Brazil, induced abortion is not punishable by law: in cases of risk to the pregnant person's life; when the pregnancy is the result of rape; and if the fetus is anencephalic. In these cases, the Brazilian government provides the abortion procedure free of charge through the Sistema Único de Saúde. This does not mean that the law regards abortion in these cases as a right, but only that women who receive abortions under these circumstances, and the doctors, will not be punished. The punishment for a woman who performs an abortion on herself or consents to an abortion performed by another outside these legal exceptions is one to three years of detention. The base penalty for a third party that performs an illegal abortion with the consent of the patient, ranges from one to four years of detention, with the possibility of increase by a third if the woman comes to any physical harm, and can be doubled if she dies. Criminal penalties fixed at four years or less can be converted to non-incarceration punishments, such as community service and compulsory donation to charity.
The Federal Supreme Court is the supreme court of Brazil, serving primarily as the country's Constitutional Court. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for constitutional issues and its rulings cannot be appealed. On cases involving exclusively non-constitutional issues, regarding federal laws, the highest court is, by rule, the Superior Court of Justice.
Since 2021, abortion has no longer been a federal crime in Mexico. However, the criminal law in Mexico varies by state. On 7 September 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court unanimously ruled that penalising abortion is unconstitutional, setting a precedent across the whole country. Before 2019, abortion had been severely restricted outside of Mexico City, where it was legalized on-request in 2007. As of August 2023, abortion is available on request to any woman during the first twelve weeks of a pregnancy in Mexico City and the states of Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Coahuila, Colima, Baja California, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Baja California Sur, Quintana Roo, Jalisco, and Aguascalientes. However, even in states where abortion is legal, there continue to be women in pre-trial detention for murder due to spontaneous miscarriage.
ADPF 54 is a landmark case of the Supreme Court of Brazil. The rapporteur, minister Marco Aurélio Mello, voted in favor of decriminalization of abortions involving anencephalic fetuses. The minister considered it unconstitutional the interpretation that interrupting a pregnancy of anencephalic fetus is a crime according to the Penal Code of Brazil:
Aborto é crime contra a vida. Tutela-se a vida em potencial. No caso do anencéfalo, não existe vida possível. O feto anencéfalo é biologicamente vivo, por ser formado por células vivas, e juridicamente morto, não gozando de proteção estatal. [...] O anencéfalo jamais se tornará uma pessoa. Em síntese, não se cuida de vida em potencial, mas de morte segura. Anencefalia é incompatível com a vida.
Abortion is a crime against life. The potential life is protected. In the case of the anencephalic, there is no possible life. The anencephalic fetus is biologically alive, being composed of living cells, and juridically dead, not warranting state protection. [...] The anencephalic will never become a person. In short, it is not about caring for a potential life, but an assured death. Anencephaly is incompatible with life.
ADPF 187, is a landmark Brazil Supreme Court case. The rapporteur Celso de Mello voted in favor of protests of decriminalization of drugs.
Enrique Ricardo Lewandowski is a Brazilian judge and former justice of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil. He's the son of a Polish father and Swiss mother, who immigrated to Brazil after the Second World War.
Luís Roberto Barroso is a Brazilian law professor, jurist, Justice and President of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil, having been nominated to the position by President Dilma Rousseff in 2013. Between 2020 and 2022, Barroso also served as President of the Superior Electoral Court.
Flávio Dino de Castro e Costa is a Brazilian attorney, Supreme Court Justice, politician and professor. A former federal judge, Dino was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006 under the Communist Party banner, serving a four-year term until 2011, representing the state of Maranhão. He was elected as the governor of Maranhão after running in the 2014 election. He became the governor of Maranhão on 1 January 2015. He was reelected in 2018. In 2021, Dino left the Communist Party to join the Socialist Party, and was appointed Minister of Justice by President Lula.
Simone Nassar Tebet is a Brazilian academic, lawyer, and politician who has served as the Brazilian Minister of Planning and Budget since 5 January 2023. She previously was Senator for Mato Grosso do Sul from 2015 to 2023, Vice-Governor of Mato Grosso do Sul from 2011 to 2014, and mayor of Três Lagoas from 2005 to 2010. A member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), of which she was the leader in the Senate from 2018 to 2019, Tebet was the MDB candidate for president in the 2022 Brazilian general election, placing third with 4.16% of the vote. After endorsing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the second round, Tebet was appointed Minister of Planning.
Rosa Maria Pires Weber is a Brazilian magistrate, former justice and former president of the Supreme Federal Court, former president of the Superior Electoral Court and former justice of the Superior Labor Court.
Sóstenes Silva Cavalcante is a Brazilian politician and pastor. Although born in Alagoas, he has spent his political career representing Rio de Janeiro (state), having served as state representative since 2015.
The 57th Legislature of National Congress is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the Federal Government of Brazil, composed by the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. It convened in Brasília on 1 February 2023, a month after the inauguration of the winner of the 2022 presidential election.
General elections will be held in Brazil on 4 October 2026 to elect the president, vice president, members of the National Congress, the governors, vice governors, and legislative assemblies of all federative units, and the district council of Fernando de Noronha. If no candidate for president—or for governor in some states—received more than half of the valid votes in the first round, a runoff election for these offices will be held on 25 October.
On 8 January 2023, following the defeat of then-president Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 Brazilian general election and the inauguration of his successor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a mob of Bolsonaro's supporters attacked Brazil's federal government buildings in the capital, Brasília. The mob invaded and caused deliberate damage to the Supreme Federal Court, the National Congress Palace and the Planalto Presidential Palace in the Praça dos Três Poderes, seeking to violently overthrow the democratically elected president Lula, who had been inaugurated on 1 January. Many rioters said their purpose was to spur military leaders to launch a "military intervention" and disrupt the democratic transition of power.
Cristiano Zanin Martins is a Brazilian attorney and professor who serves as justice of the Supreme Federal Court. He gained notoriety as personal attorney of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in lawsuits related to Operation Car Wash.
Luciana Boiteux de Figueiredo Rodrigues is a Brazilian lawyer, professor of criminal law and criminology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (URFJ), researcher, feminist, and human rights activist. She is currently a councilwoman for the city of Rio de Janeiro, affiliated with the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL).
ADPF 153 was a constitutional review case ruled by the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court, which the Order of Attorneys of Brazil (OAB) requested the acknowledgment of the inconstitutionality of the Amnesty Law. Ruled in April 2010, the Supreme Court considered the case unfounded in a voting of 7 to 2.
The milestone thesis, also known as the time marker or Copacabana thesis, is a legal thesis constructed by a case law based on the judgment of the Raposa Serra do Sol case by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of Brazil in 2009. In it, the Supreme Court decided that the article of the Constitution which guarantees the usufruct of lands traditionally occupied by Brazilian indigenous people should be interpreted by counting only the lands in possession on 5 October 1988, the date of promulgation of the Constitution.
RE 635.659 was a case of the Supreme Court of Brazil concerning the decriminalization of drugs for personal use. The case's rapporteur, Gilmar Mendes, cast the initial vote in favor of decriminalization, and the majority of the Court agreed to decriminalize cannabis.
ADPF 787 is an ongoing case of the Supreme Court of Brazil concerning ease of access of transgender people to public healthcare in Brazil, provided by the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). The case's rapporteur, minister Gilmar Mendes, cast the initial vote asserting the right of any person, regardless of gender, to access healthcare they require, and the majority of the Court agreed.
