Note from BW of Brazil: Yet another tragedy because of inadequate, inaccessible health care. The abortion issue is one of contention in Brazil. According to the Brazilian Criminal Code (articles 124, 128, 125, 127, 43 and 44), “Abortion can only be legally performed in Brazil if the pregnancy puts the life of the woman in danger or if the pregnancy is the result of a rape. (Art. 128) The punishment for a woman which performs an abortion on herself or consents to an abortion performed by another outside these legal exceptions is based in one to three years of detention.[Art 124] The base penalty for a third part that performs an illegal abortion in a woman, with her consentment, varies from one to four years of detention, with the possibility of elevation by one third if the woman gets any physical harm, and can be doubled if she dies.[Art. 125 and 127] Criminal penalties fixed in four years or less can be converted to non-incarceration punishments, such as community service and compulsory donation to charity[Art 43 and 44].” Source
The debate in a case like the one is this story, as in any other case, could be hotly debated. Some will say, the woman should have taken more precaution in order to get pregnant. Others will argue that she had already made her mind and, as such, should have had safer options made available to her. Others will argue that having to resort to such risky procedures indeed put this woman’s life in danger while others will argue that abortion is murder and should continue to have strong restrictions, if not not outlawed altogether. The debate will of course rage on, in the meantime, the bottom line is that yet another life was lost due to health care complications. An all too common occurrence in Brazil.
Woman dies after clandestine abortion in Niterói
By Anderson Justino
Woman was four months pregnant and on Saturday was heading to SG Pendotiba in Niterói, where she would have a procedure to prevent the birth of her fourth child, but ended up died.
An attempted abortion ended in tragedy for a family of Engenho Pequeno neighborhood in São Gonçalo. Housewife Elizângela Barbosa, 32, died Sunday while undergoing an abortion in a clandestine clinic located in Pendotiba region in Niterói, according to information from relatives. Having been found bleeding by residents of a favela (slum) in Ititioca she was taken to the State Hospital Lima Azevedo (Heal), in Fonseca, in the North Zone of the city, but succumbed.
Elizângela was almost five months pregnant and, according to doctors who tended to her at Heal, she was admitted to the emergency room still with a plastic tube used for the abortion procedure on her body. The fetus could not be withdrawn as it is already well developed, and physicians, may have further aggravated the state of the woman’s health.
The mother of three children, the housewife claimed not to have financial and psychological conditions to raise the fourth, she told her husband, industrial painter Anderson Santos, 27. Even against the wishes of the family, Elizângela made the decision to have an abortion, he said.
“The expectation of this child was always a matter of debate in the house. She always said that she wouldn’t be able to raise another baby. I never agreed with her desire to have an abortion, I always said that there would be a way and that all would be well within our home and we would raise our children. But she had already decided and I could not stop her from doing what he wanted,” he said.
According to her husband, Elizângela left home around 8pm on Saturday, taking R$2,800 for payment of the abortion. Anderson would have still accompanied the woman to the place where she arranged to meet with a man, a merchant of the region, which would take her to the clinic. According to her husband, this was the last moment of physical contact with her family.
“I took her along with our children to the point of meeting with this man, near our home. Once she got into this guy’s car, our middle son spoke very softly, “Daddy, will mommy will never return?”, I don’t know what to say to him,” he tearfully revealed, adding that he received a call from his wife hours later asking for more money. “She talked to me on Saturday. She called me asking for more money. She said she would have to pay R$3,500 for an abortion.”
The last contact with the woman was made around 7pm Sunday, when through a telephone message she would arranged to speak with her husband later, after being released from the clinic.
“After I received this message, I waited for time to pass to make contact, but she did not answer the phone. Then someone called the hospital and asked that the family be there ASAP because Elizângela had entered the emergency room. They only didn’t say that she was dead,” he said.
Responsible for investigations, assistant delegate of Homicide of Niterói and São Gonçalo Itaboraí (DHNISG), Adilson Palácio, said he plans to hear all those involved in the housewife’s abortion process.
“We’ve heard the family and we will hear the others involved. What we know is that the victim left home on Saturday morning and Sunday night was taken to Heal, where her death was confirmed. We have to identify where this clinic is. Our expert will still await the conclusions of the cadaveric report, to know what really happened,” he said.
The Gol car that, according to police, had been used to take Elizângela to the hospital was investigated early on Monday at the headquarters of the specialist.
Source: O Fluminense
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