Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the capital on Saturday as protests swept across Brazil against a bill that would further criminalize abortions. If the law is passed, termination of pregnancy after 22 weeks would be equated with murder.

The bill, proposed by conservative lawmakers and headed for a vote in the lower house, would also apply in cases of rape. Critics say those who seek abortions this late are usually victims of child rape because their pregnancies are often discovered later.

To unite the opposition, rights groups created the “A Child is Not a Mother” campaign, which has swept social media. During demonstrations, posters, stickers and banners with the slogan were in abundance. And viral images of women in red cloaks compare Brazil to Gilead, the theocratic patriarchy that Margaret Atwood created in her dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

About 10,000 people, mostly women, filled several blocks of Sao Paulo’s main boulevard on Saturday afternoon, organizers estimated. It was the largest demonstration to date, following events in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Florianopolis, Recife, Manaus and other cities. Many wore green clothing and scarves, a common sight at women’s rights mobilizations across Latin America.

Marli Gavioli, 65, has largely refrained from protesting since the 1980s demonstrations calling for the end of the military dictatorship, but she told The Associated Press she was too outraged to stay home.

‘I couldn’t stay out of this or I would regret it too much. We women are being beaten from all sides. It’s time we do something,” she said.

Brazil only allows abortion in cases of rape if there is a clear risk to the mother’s life or if the fetus does not have a functioning brain. Apart from these exceptions, Brazil’s penal code imposes a prison sentence of one to three years for women who terminate a pregnancy. Some Brazilian women fly abroad to obtain abortions.

If the bill becomes law, the penalty would increase to six to 20 years if an abortion is performed after 22 weeks. Critics have emphasized that this would mean convicted rapists could receive lower sentences than their victims.

Experts say late access to abortion reflects health care inequality. Children, poor women, black women and people living in rural areas are particularly at risk.

“We cannot be sentenced to prison because we were raped and did not receive support and care,” Talita Rodrigues, a member of the rights group National Front Against the Criminalization of Women and for the Legalization of Abortion, said by telephone.

Of the 74,930 people who were victims of rape in Brazil in 2022, 61.4% were under the age of 14, according to a 2023 study by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, an independent group that tracks crimes.

“For children, it is common for a pregnancy to be discovered only after 22 weeks,” Ivanilda Figueiredo, a law professor at Rio de Janeiro State University, said by telephone. For example, they may not know that periods — a sign that women are not pregnant — are monthly, she said.

Among the protesters in central Rio on Thursday was Graziela Souza, a 25-year-old student who was sexually abused as a child.

“I think it is very important that the victims are present, as much as it hurts,” Souza said. “We have to speak out and fight it because if we stay home, we are going to lose.”

Defenders of the bill have argued that late-stage abortions were unthinkable when Brazil’s criminal code was passed in 1940, which explains why there is currently no time limit. Had it been intended, they argue, it would have been considered infanticide.

The bill’s author, lawmaker and evangelical pastor Sóstenes Cavalcante, declined an interview request from the AP.

On Wednesday, House of Commons Speaker Arthur Lira went through a process to speed up the bill in less than 30 seconds, with many lawmakers reportedly unaware this was taking place. This maneuver allows the plenary to vote without first passing the bill’s approval committees. Lira has been a prime target for protesters’ anger. On Saturday, signs read: “What if it happened to your daughter, Lira?” and simply “Lira out.”

Conservative lawmakers proposing the bill — dubbed “the rape rally” by protesters — are playing politics, hoping to increase turnout and support from evangelical voters in October’s municipal elections, said Fernanda Barros dos Santos, a political scientist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said by phone. Abortion is a topic of great concern among Christians, who make up the majority of voters in Brazil.

“The bill puts people who are progressives in a very difficult situation because they lose votes by defending abortion rights,” said Figueiredo, the law professor.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is seeking to join the Evangelicals, an important voting bloc for the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro. Lula defeated Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential elections.

“The president sent a letter to evangelicals in the campaign saying he was against abortion. We want to see if he will veto it. Let’s test Lula,” Cavalcante, the author of the bill, told local news channel G1 on Tuesday.

First lady Rosângela da Silva, better known as Janja, denounced the proposal on social media on Friday, saying women and girls who are raped should be protected and not re-victimized. Lula finally gave his opinion on Saturday during the G7 in Italy.

“I had five children, eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild. I am against abortion. But since abortion is a reality, we must treat abortion as a public health issue,” he said at a news conference. “And I think it is crazy that someone wants to punish a woman with a sentence that is longer than the criminal who committed the rape.”

While strict abortion laws have long been the norm in the predominantly Roman Catholic region of Latin America, feminist movements have gained strength in recent years, delivering successive victories for abortion rights campaigners. Colombia’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in 2022, following a similar breakthrough ruling by Mexico. Argentina’s Congress legalized abortion in 2020, and a few years earlier Chile reversed a strict ban.

In the U.S., the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld access to a drug used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the country last year, in the court’s first abortion decision since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.

Last September, Brazil’s highest court opened a hearing on the decriminalization of abortion. Former Chief Justice Rosa Weber, now retired, voted in favor. Chief Justice Luís Roberto Barroso – who also favors decriminalization – asked for a postponement and voting can resume at his request.

“We are lagging behind in this area and we have to fight for progress,” Eduarda Isnoldo, a 27-year-old English teacher, said through tears during the protest in Sao Paulo. “When you realize that your rights can be taken away so easily, it is impossible to remain silent.”

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Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro.