TIME00170

Brazil: In one of his first actions while in office, the new Minister of Health issued Ordinance 1508/2005 revoking Ordinance 1145/2005, which had been discredited by the president of the Supreme Court and the Federal Medical Council. This new ordinance, in an attempt to reassure medical professionals, provided an approval form empowering the medical team to determine the existence of “evidence toward a false allegation of a sex crime.” In essence, despite the fact that rape victims are not required to present a police report in order to obtain an abortion, the medical team has the power to determine whether to authorize the procedure based on its own understanding of “evidence.”