I hate the rank smell of religious zealotry, so self-righteous, so sure, so confident that the grand ooga-booga has ordained that the status of women in Brazil needs to be taken down a score of notches.

As reported by the CBC:

“A congressional committee led by evangelical Christians has voted to ban abortion in Brazil in all situations, including cases of rape and where the mother’s life is in danger.
The decision was approved 18-1 late Wednesday by a special committee considering a constitutional amendment to extend maternity leave for mothers of premature babies.”

Let’s just call this instance #234987022808 of the institution of religion reinforcing the patriarchal status quo in a ‘modern’ society. The women in Brazil are just going to have to get used to the notion that their existence is defined by their patriarchally sanctioned social role as birthers of children (full stop). Also, the role as women who die in childbirth because apparently it is their ultimate calling. Fuck free will, bodily autonomy, and kooky notions of universal humanity for the female sex class.

Crimes against the female half of humanity aside(!), things were not all that amazing on the reproductive rights front for women in Brazil before hand. The church of choir-boy abuse..err..catholic church had the usual oppressive sanctions against women in place before hand.

“Abortion is illegal in predominantly Catholic Brazil except when the pregnancy is the result of a rape or puts the mother’s life at risk.”

Let’s let the high misogynists in charge speak for themselves:

“To defend abortion, like it or not, is a Satanic, diabolical and destructive act,” evangelical congressman Pastor Eurico told the committee, brandishing a replica of a 12-week-old fetus.”

Satanic… Indeed.

Specious bullshit like the above statement should be all the justification necessary for justification of separation of church and state. Further more, it is all the evidence required to illustrate how skull-explodingly bad religion is for women and society in general.

All isn’t *quite* lost yet though. The male politician might actually find it within themselves a shred of moral and ethical decency and kill this constitutional amendment before it becomes law.

“The move to criminalize all cases of abortion would require supermajorities, or two-thirds of the votes in both chambers of Congress, as it is part of a constitutional amendment.”

But then again, the men who seem to think it is their right to dictate how women lead their lives and make their reproductive choice might make a ‘compromise’ and merrily throw women under the bus for movement on the obviously much more important topic of pension reform.

“The measure could clear those hurdles as part of a trade-off for other legislation the governing coalition seeks to pass, such as pension reform needed to plug a gaping budget deficit.”

How magnanimous of the ruling dudes in charge. Because shitting on women will always result in the betterment of society. It’s 2017 and it would seem that most of the world isn’t exactly on board with the whole treating women like full members of human race yet.

What a time to be alive!

[Source:cbc.ca]