Brazilians protest in front of the Supreme Court wearing “The Handmaid's Tale” costumes, in 2018 | Image: Midia Ninja/CC 2.0 The stories of two women in Brazil who got pregnant and faced systemic barriers to abortion, despite policies that guarantee legal access to the procedures, recently exposed contradictions in the discourse of so-called “pro-life” supporters. One of them, an 11-year-old rape survivor, was asked by a woman judge if she could “endure a little bit more” and keep the baby for a few more weeks, along with other questions seemingly to convince the child to continue the pregnancy. Recordings of the hearing were revealed by The Intercept on June 20. In the hearing, the 11-year-old's mother, who took her to the hospital to abort the pregnancy, was asked by the judge if she understood that, in case of abortion, after being born, the baby would be left crying until it died, similar to comments made by the case public prosecutor to the girl herself — a false information about how the procedure works The judge also told the girl's mother to consider adoption instead, suggesting the baby could bring joy to another family, as she was quoted saying: “Today's sadness for you and your daughter is the happiness of a couple.” The case generated public outrage as abortion is guaranteed by Brazilian law in cases such as this. In this instance, despite the judge's overstepping, the girl ended up getting the procedure at the end of June. Even after the legal abortion, however, the public prosecutor on the case asked the police to recover the fetus at the hospital to have the “cause of death” identified, as reported by The Intercept. The federal government also asked to investigate the medical team, according to Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. The second story had a different outcome. On June 25, 21-year-old Brazilian actress Klara Castanho shared a letter with her millions of Instagram followers recounting her experience with sexual violence. A post shared by Klåra Cåstanho (@klarafgcastanho) Klara was pressured to address rumors that she had a baby and put them up for adoption. A few days earlier, YouTuber/actress Antonia Fontenelle published a criticism-filled video suggesting a famous Brazillian actress had become pregnant and put the baby up for adoption. Fontenelle never named Klara, but described characteristics that allowed people to connect the dots. The story went public and further criticism and slandering poured in against Klara. In her statement, Klara said she was raped in a place where she didn’t have friends or family around and that a piece of her died from that moment on. She ended up not reporting the rapist out of fear, but took a morning-after pill in an attempt to put the violent act behind her. After a while, she felt stomach pains and discovered she was pregnant while doing a tomography scan. The physician said she was “obliged to love this baby” and forced her to listen to the heartbeat. Klara considered her options and decided to put the child up for adoption, notifying all public authorities responsible for the process. Legally, there are procedures designed to protect the identity of both the mother and the baby in cases like this. Yet still, a hospital nurse appeared to threaten Klara, asking if she could imagine what would happen if a certain gossip columnist found out about the story — the case is under investigation by the hospital and professional councils. The story was indeed leaked to gossip columns and eventually reached Fontenelle. Leo Dias, one of the columnists, hinted about the controversy in a talk show interview, before the case becoming public, and rushed to publish information about the baby soon after Klara published her statement. Metropoles, the news outlet where his column is hosted, deleted the article a few hours later and issued an apology. Lilian Tahan, Metropoles’ newsroom director, wrote on her Twitter: Estive fora do ar por algumas horas. Ao voltar, uma surpresa muito triste. Expusemos de forma inaceitável os dados de uma mulher vítima de violência brutal. A matéria foi retira do ar. — Lilian Tahan (@lilian_tahan) June 26, 2022 I've been offline for a few hours. When I came back, a very sad surprise. We've exposed in an unacceptable manner information about a woman who is a victim of brutal violence. The article was withdrawn. After Klara's open letter, Fontenelle, a known Jair Bolsonaro supporter who plans to run for Congress in the 2022 elections, recorded a new video claiming she didn't know about the rape. She claimed she wanted “to help Klara” to make her abuser pay for what he did, adding that rapists should face the death penalty.