Two days later and several hundred miles away, a 25-year-old woman packed a backpack in her one-bedroom Sao Paulo apartment and left for the airport with her boyfriend.
Both women are part of a trend among Brazilian women without means who, to dodge risks and legal obstacles in Latin America's most populous country, have sought abortions elsewhere in the region. They didn't even need passports to enter Argentina, a fellow Mercosur nation. Sara said she couldn't risk the possibility of buying counterfeit abortion pills or undergoing a dangerous backdoor procedure in Brazil. She feared injury, death or a failed abortion resulting in complications. Getting caught could even mean jail.
Before last week's vote, Argentine feminist groups had long pushed for legalized abortion in the homeland of Pope Francis, and they found common cause with President Alberto Fernandez, who was elected in 2019 and introduced the bill. "We are working to provide a growing level of attention and protection to our pregnant women in vulnerable situations," Alves said in a written response to AP questions. "No one will want to leave the Brazil that we are building, much less to kill their kids."
The Sao Paulo woman who travelled to Argentina for an abortion last month grew up in a Rio de Janeiro slum, or favela, where she frequently saw unplanned pregnancies derail women's lives, burdening them with responsibilities and making it even harder to have careers or social mobility.She was able to leave the favela after landing a secure job, and is studying for a career in a medical field.
Good for them, tragic mothers who kill their own babies