World News for Students of English

20-06-2024 07:00

Thousands of women protested in Sao Paulo against a bill in Brazil’s conservative Congress that would equate abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy to murder, with sentences ranging from six to 20 years in prison.

The demonstrators marched along Paulista Avenue. They carried banners against the proposal, which they consider the most repressive to women’s reproductive rights in decades. Protesters of all ages chanted, ‘A child is not a mother, a rapist is not a father’. Currently, abortion is allowed in Brazil only in cases of rape, fetal deformation, or danger to the mother’s life. The new bill, supported by religious lawmakers, would classify abortions by rape victims as murder after 22 weeks.

Feminist groups criticized the bill for imposing harsher penalties than those given to rapists. They also highlighted the severe impact on children abused by family members, who often realize their pregnancies late. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called the bill insane and promised to defend the current laws.

Difficult words: equate (to consider equal), repressive (controlling what people do, especially by force), fetal deformation (abnormal formation of the baby inside the womb).

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