(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in Brazil disagree with the Catholic Church's prerogatives on pregnancy termination, according to a poll by Ibope. 59 per cent of respondents do not share the view that abortion should be banned in all cases.

Brazil's penal code has typified abortion as a crime since 1940. The procedure is only permitted when a pregnancy is the result of a rape, or when the woman's life is endangered. Approximately 80 per cent of Brazilians are baptized Roman Catholics.

Some policies of Brazil's socialist-leaning president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva have focused on sexual health and birth control. In late June, Brazilian health minister Jose Gomes Temporao announced the government's plan to distribute free morning-after pills—which can be administered within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse to prevent a pregnancy—to poor women.

In late July, civil-rights group Ipas revealed that a particularly high number of young women die in Brazil after undergoing clandestine abortions. In a joint study with Rio State University, Ipas found that poor, black and mixed race women are three times more likely than white women to seek abortions and die.

Leila Adessa, Brazil's Ipas director, discussed the findings, saying, "It is absolutely necessary to guarantee access to education and birth-control methods in order to reduce these types of deaths."

Polling Data

The Catholic Church opposes abortion under any circumstance. Do you agree or disagree with this view?

Archive Search

Over 19,300 Polls
Search the Angus Reid Global Monitor Polls & Research archive.