Modern-Day Inquisition: A Report on Criminal Persecution,Exposure of Intimacy and Violation of Rights in Brazil
In April 2007, Brazilian media reported the existence of a “Family Planning Clinic” that allegedly performed abortions in the city of Campo Grande (in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul). Three days later, the police raided the establishment and seized nearly 10,000 medical files, violating the privacy of women who had dared to exercise the freedom to make decisions and control their own lives. The article tells this story, known as the “case of the 10,000 women”, so as to reflect on the restrictions on women’s reproductive rights and to comment on the coercion resulting from the law that bans the voluntary termination of pregnancy in Brazil.
Original in Portuguese. Translated by Barney Whiteoak.