(Crux. Eduardo Campos Lima).
Pro-life movements in Brazil are campaigning for a fast approval in Congress of a bill aiming to equate abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy to homicide, carrying a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. The Christian bloc in the Chamber of Deputies – formed mainly by Evangelical Congressmembers – has been pushing for the approval of a “regime of urgency” for the bill. That measure would exempt it from the need to be approved by different Congress’s commissions before being moved to be voted in the assembly. The bill was introduced by Congressman Sóstenes Cavalcante, an Assembly of God theologian who formerly led the Christian bloc and is a member of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party. Nowadays, abortions are legal in Brazil if the pregnancy was the result of rape, if it puts the mother’s life in danger, or if the unborn child has no brain. There is no time limit for the practice of an abortion in such cases.