Legalizing Abortion In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Could Help Reduce Violence, Governor Says

Sergio Cabral -- the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -- on Wednesday said that legalizing abortion could help reduce violence in the city, AFP/Independent Online reports (AFP/Independent Online, 10/25). Abortion is banned in Brazil except in cases of rape or to save the life of the pregnant woman (EFE News Service, 10/24).

According to Cabral, wealthy women in Rio de Janeiro are able to undergo abortions at clandestine clinics, but low-income women -- many of whom reside in the city's overpopulated slums, which have high rates of crime -- have no way to end unintended pregnancies (AFP/Independent Online, 10/25). Cabral said that it is "madness" to not offer low-income women a way to end unintended pregnancies.

Cabral added that in affluent areas of Rio de Janeiro, the number of children per woman is similar to that of Sweden, whereas the number of children per woman in impoverished areas of the city is similar to that of Zambia or Gabon. "That's a factory for producing marginal people," Cabral said (EFE News Service, 10/24). According to AFP/Independent Online, Cabral based his argument for legalizing abortion on the book "Freakonomics" by economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner, which links a decline in criminal violence in the U.S. to the legalization of abortion in 1973.

Cabral said that Brazilian politicians do not have the "courage" to discuss abortion in the country, which has a large Roman Catholic population (AFP/Independent Online, 10/25). According to EFE News Service, Cabral was criticized for suggesting that a lack of abortion access among low-income women leads to an increase in criminal activity (EFE News Service, 10/24).

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