In a rebuff to the Catholic Church who tried to contest in court the free distribution of morning-after pills by Brazilian health authorities, Pernambuco state's Public Prosecutor's Office sided with the city of Recife, which plans to hand the birth control pill customarily taken after unprotected sex to avoid pregnancy.
According to a note released by the prosecutor's office, the legal document recommends that the state's and city's Health Secretariats keep "their policy of Women's Health Integral Care, with the distribution of the pill and their adopted public health policy, especially during the Carnaval season."
The decision was taken by health prosecutor Ivana Botelho, based on technical opinion provided by prosecuting office doctors Ana Carolina de Freitas Thé and Maria Helena Ferreira da Costa. In their report, the professionals state that the morning-after pill is not an abortive method.
The prosecutor also took into consideration the way in which the pill will be delivered to the population, with previous medical evaluation required, in the public health public system post set up in the main places people will gather to dance Carnaval.
The Public Prosecutor's Office recommendation was an answer to a request made by the Olinda and Recife Archdiocese's Health Pastoral that the distribution of the pill were suspended. The Church motion was based on the premise that morning-after pill is an abortion medicine, which would make it illegal since the Brazilian legislation allows termination of pregnancy only in a few cases like rape or fetal malformation.
Brazil's Health minister, José Gomes Temporão, criticized the Olinda and Recife Archdiocese's decision. During the launching of the national Carnaval's AIDS prevention campaign he called the Church's posture "unfortunate", because it more and more drives away young people from the Catholic Church.
