In the country with the world’s biggest Catholic population, abortion is permitted in few circumstances — until 2012 only after rape or when the mother’s life is in danger. But fear over the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus — believed to cause microcephaly where the head is abnormally small — could spark change.
A group of pro-abortion activists, lawyers and doctors is launching a legal battle in the Supreme Court to allow abortion in cases of microcephaly and when mothers-to-be have contracted Zika. The same group successfully sued in 2012 to have a category added to the abortion law for cases of anencephaly, where the embryo is missing a major part of its brain and skull. Doctor Artur Timerman, head of the Brazilian Dengue Society, told AFP that some women with Zika are not waiting and are already seeking clandestine abortions. Brazil has seen 404 babies born with microcephaly and another 3,670 suspected cases since last October, making the country the epicenter of what the World Health Organization calls an international emergency. In 2014, Brazil had registered just 147 cases of microcephaly.
 

Read more at The Guardian Nigeria (satire) (press release) (blog)