Brazilian left-wing lawmakers manage to stop a bill against abortion from being voted on

Leftist congresswomen managed to stop the advance of a project against abortion in Brazil. On Wednesday, Dec. 14, conservative parliamentarians tried in vain to vote on the ‘Statute of the Born’, which protects life from conception.

The text’s rapporteur, Emanuel Pinheiro (MDB-MT), decided to postpone the session by accepting a bill attached to the statute on the eve of the vote.

The measure was authored by congresswomen Érika Kokay (PT-DF), Luiza Erundina (Psol-SP), Áurea Carolina (Psol-MG), Vivi Reis (Psol-PA), Fernanda Melchiona (Psol-RS), Sâmia Bomfim (Psol-SP), and Talíria Petrone (Psol-RJ), from the “feminist caucus”.

According to the left, the goal is to guarantee the “autonomy of the pregnant woman to decide freely about her body” and her “sexual and reproductive rights”.

The session would have approved the statute since the conservative bench undid all the regimental maneuvers.

But when it came time to vote on the proposal’s merits, the rapporteur eventually gave in and requested the opinion removal from the agenda.

“I don’t think it’s fair, and I have no way of commenting on a new project without having a proper discussion,” said Pinheiro.

“One more session is necessary so that I can appreciate and, if necessary, reject all joined projects.”

Right-wing deputies criticized the feminists’ maneuver.

“The rapporteur is free to manifest himself in the time he wants, but we all know that he could manifest himself today and give an opinion on another joined project,” said Deputy Diego Garcia (Republicans/PR).

With the new postponement, conservative lawmakers fear that it will not be possible to conclude the vote this year, given the end of the legislature and work next week.

APENSAÇÃO

This instrument allows proposals on the same or similar subjects to be dealt with together. When a text presented is identical to another being processed, the rapporteur determines that the most recent is joined to the oldest.

In this way, when one intends to postpone a vote, a measure can be presented together with another under analysis to force the rapporteur to analyze it before voting on the previous one.

With information from Revista Oeste