Brazil allows for the interruption of pregnancy in cases of rape, risk to the pregnant woman's life, or if fetal anencephaly is diagnosed. There are court decisions indicating that a malformation incompatible with life would also justify abortion.
Reports from women who sought the procedure through the SUS (Unified Health System) show that, even in allowed cases, they may be at the mercy of doctors and judges. They describe situations of humiliation, embarrassment, religious fanaticism, difficulty accessing information about legal abortion and hospitals that perform the procedure, as well as long journeys to access the procedure.
According to Ana Elisa Bechara, vice-director and professor of criminal law at the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo, in practice, legal abortion faces many restrictions.
2,946 women underwent legal abortion in 2023. Brazil has 155 reference hospitals for the procedure. They are located in less than 2% of cities. According to a resolution of the Federal Council of Medicine, professionals may refuse to participate in the procedure if they do not agree ideologically.