By Júlia Lopes, Juliana Sousa and Maria Beatriz Giusti
CEUB News Agency/Jornal de Brasília
A voluntary initiative called“Miles for women’s lives”initially organized by screenwriter Juliana Reis, has helped Brazilian women seek rights to have a legal abortion provided for by legislation in the country.
“We created the project to transform reality in Brazil and help women who don’t have money to access legal abortion”, says the founder.
“I have already fought for myself, for my daughter, for my granddaughter so that the right to decide on their lives belongs to them”.
Juliana Reis says that the motivation for the initiative came from the desire to guarantee freedom of choice over their own bodies for their female family members.
Juliana also adds, in an interview with CEUB News Agency, about the oppressive and limiting bias of anti-abortion policies. “Any restriction of a woman’s right is a very serious attack on her fundamental right to exist.”, emphasizes the screenwriter.
Initiative that changes lives
In addition to explaining the legislation in Brazil, the project explains that there are countries where abortion is legal, such as Colombia.
Sofia*, 29, is the first person in her family to enter a public university. She related the classes to raising her 5-year-old daughter and working to help her family, which is small and low-income, in extreme social vulnerability.
She was one of the first women helped by Operation Miles for Women’s Lives, in 2019.
She says that, when she discovered her second pregnancy, she despaired and the unexpected news worsened her depression.
“At that time I was very sick, very mentally ill. I supported my family, I had to work in the morning, work in the afternoon, study in that rush. Chaos. I didn’t see a way out”
The young woman says that she used combined contraceptive practices and, therefore, was scared when she confirmed her pregnancy.
“I couldn’t imagine myself with another child and I was protecting myself, I used a condom and took the pill,” said Sofia. “I always took care of myself because I already have a daughter.”
The then student looked for ways to terminate her pregnancy online and through this channel she discovered the “Operation Miles for Women’s Life” initiative. There, she started talking to the then-new founder, Juliana Reis. “On the internet, I got in touch with Ju, she gave me all the support in the world (…) she managed to make it happen, she managed to collect the donation of miles, she managed to make the trip happen and then I traveled.”
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Sofia still emphasizes her despair with her pregnancy before traveling “My friends who followed me closely were afraid of it being a new practice of human trafficking, but I literally just said that everything was better than having to put this child into the world , it was better than not being able to support this child.”
By donating enough miles, Sofia was able to obtain, through the organization, the amount needed to travel to Colombia, where abortion is legal.
“It was my first international trip, I got there and had all the support from the staff. I didn’t know how to speak the language, I was in a country I didn’t know with people I didn’t know. I was insecure, I was scared (…), but everything went well, my first consultation at a clinic, everything was fine, everything was incredible, the service was wonderful.’
In Colombia, abortion is a legal practice under any circumstances up to the 24th week of pregnancy since February 2022.
Before legalization, from 2006 onwards, the country’s Constitutional Court allowed abortions to be carried out in cases of rape, fetal malformation and risk to the woman’s physical and mental health — as was Sofia’s case. “Pregnancy was something that was not only hurting me emotionally, but physically too, I was hospitalized because I was feeling horrible pain”, says Sofia.
Volunteering
The NGO counts on the help of professionals such as lawyers, who help women in the legal processes to obtain a legal abortion in Brazil. Psychologists/psychiatrists who provide support during and after abortion.
Through GRAPPA (Post-Abortion Psychological Counseling Group) joint therapy for women who have had an abortion in Brazil through Milhas.
Psychologist Ana*, 46, joined the project in 2020 to coordinate GRAPPA and reiterates the importance of psychological support for women who had an abortion due to sexual abuse.
“Violence against women is something very naturalized, so they knew they had been victims of violence, but were unable to name it, such as marital rape”, says the psychologist.
Policy change
Juliana Reis believes that Brazil has never been so close to legalizing abortion and highlights the need for active political movements, like hers, to make this possible.
“Now we need to work towards this, women need to take to the streets, they need to talk about it, they need to stop being ashamed even though it is a subject that can be, and still is, painful”
In January 2023, the Lula Government withdrew Brazil from the international anti-abortion alliance. The International Covenant understands that abortion should not be used as a family planning practice.
The declaration, which was signed by more than 31 countries, had been ratified by the Jair Bolsonaro Government in 2020.
Supervision: Luiz Claudio Ferreira
The post Project guides women on legislation for legal abortion appeared first in Jornal de Brasília.
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