Overview

• Seven justices formed a majority to reject Luís Roberto Barroso’s injunction, with a divergence opened by Gilmar Mendes and joined by Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino, Nunes Marques, André Mendonça, Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli.
• Barroso’s provisional order had allowed nurses and technicians to assist in abortions permitted by law and had suspended administrative and criminal proceedings against these professionals.
• The injunction also barred public health bodies from imposing requirements not set in law, such as gestational limits or mandatory police reports, for access to legal abortion services.
• The Federal Council of Medicine publicly backed the votes against the injunction, citing the ‘medical act’ law and asserting there are sufficient physicians to perform legally permitted procedures.
• On his final day on the Court, Barroso recorded a vote to decriminalize voluntary termination up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, while the broader merits of decriminalization remain under consideration.