1. NOVAsia
34
Z
ika, a mosquito-transmitted virus has, until now,
remained a fairly obscure illness, largely con-
fined to a narrow tropical belt stretching from Africa
to Asia. That all changed in February 2016, when
the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a
public health emergency for the Zika virus since it had reached
pandemic levels in South America. The spread of Zika had al-
ready begun in 2013, infecting populations in Pacific Island na-
tions, when in 2015 it arrived on the South American continent.
Some researchers in Brazil also suggest it arrived even earlier
in the country during the FIFA 2014 World Cup. The symptoms
of the illness caused by the Zika virus resemble those of a mild
dengue fever, headache, sore lips and bloodshot eyes. The only
known course of treatment is rest. However, the disease poses
permanent dangers for unborn children, which only recently
have been connected to the virus. Doctors and researchers con-
firm that it causes a birth defect known as microcephaly, where
some infants are born with abnormally small heads and often a
range of neurological issues. Researchers are still grappling to un-
derstand the linkage between the birth defect and the sudden rise
in microcephaly cases in Brazil. Before fall 2015, only 150 cases
of this particular birth defect were registered each year in Bra-
zil, now this number is in the thousands. In light of the rising
incidence of Zika related birth defects, many are raising questions
A Tale of ZikaLilith-Isa Samer
4th Semester, PIC
Editor

2. NOVAsia
35
about whether abortion laws should be relaxed, a very contro-
versial topic in Brazil, where 90% of the population is Chris-
tian. According to national legislation, performing an abortion
is only legal when the life of the mother is in severe danger,
or the pregnancy was a result of rape. Violating the law can
result in up to three years in detention for the woman and up
to four years for the abortion provider. Brazil is also a signato-
ry of the ‘ Pact of San José,’ a human rights convention grant-
ing human embryos the right of life from the point of conception.
As a signatory, the pact is legally binding for Brazil. According
to a poll conducted by Vox Populi, a majority of Brazilians are
in favor of anti-abortion laws: 82% answered replied “no” when
asked if abortion should be made legal. A Brazilian abortion
case in 2009 even further illustrates the extreme and unwaver-
ing anti-abortion position of church leaders. In March of that year,
doctors performed an abortion on a nine year-old girl who was
pregnant with twins after her stepfather had raped her. According
to her doctor, she would have risked a rupture of the uterus, hem-
orrhage as well as life-long sterility, which made the abortion
legal on grounds of medical need. However, Archbishop Jose
Cardoso Sobrinho stated that the mother of the girl, as well as
the whole medical team that performed the abortion, would be
automatically excommunicated according to church law. The
archbishop’ s statement was met international backlash from
politicians and human rights organizations, and even the Vatican,
which said that nobody would be excommunicated. Yet the rise
of the Zika epidemic, and its threat to pregnant mothers and their
unborn children, may weaken the strict anti-abortion stance in
Brazil and surrounding countries. In the past major health crises
have led to the loosening of abortion laws in other countries.
The Contergan scandal in Germany in the 1950s and 1960s is
one such precedent. This over-the-counter medication containing
Thalidomide marketed as a sleeping pill and morning sickness pill
for pregnant women caused serious birth defects in 5000 to 10000
cases and an unknown number of stillbirths around the world.
The Contergan scandal is considered one of the reasons for
the liberalization of abortion laws in many European countries
at the end of the 1960s and in the early 1970s. The Conter-
gan scandal even had an effect on abortion legislation in the
US. The then famous actress Sherri Finkbine had to travel to
Sweden to undergo an abortion because she had taken med-
ication containing Thalidomide that her husband had bought
in Europe. The case sparked sympathy among many and had
a strong effect on public opinion regarding the decriminalization
and legalization of abortion since the case was highly televised.
According to a Gallup poll conducted in 1962, 55% of the
respondents answered that she did the right thing in aborting the
fetus. It is unclear whether the rise of Zika related birth defects
will have a similar effect on the very stringent anti-abortion leg-
islation in Brazil, or whether it will have a significant effect
on public opinion. Nevertheless, there are already efforts to raise
the issue and women in Brazil are responding with their own
demands. The organization Women on Web, which provides
abortion pills to women living in countries where abortion
is difficult to obtain, saw an increase in request for these pills
coming from South American countries such as Brazil once the
extent of Zika’ s spread became public. The founder of the
organization, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts told the Washington Post
that this drastic increase is indeed related to the Zika out-
break. However the Brazilian authorities are taking measures
to prevent the abortion medicine from getting to its destination.
According to a statement by Women on Web, 95% of the packag-
es sent were confiscated before they could get to the recipient.
In an article in the Los Angeles Times, a woman wrote that
she is “thinking of doing the worst” and “I really need help. I can
no longer eat, and I cry all the time,” after her abortion
kit failed to arrive. This shows that even though the public
sentiment is definitely not in favor of relaxing regulations
regarding abortion, there is a pronounced need for access to safe
abortion procedures. While heated discourse over the legal-
ization of abortion continues, countries in South America are
still battling with the viral epidemic and it is very likely that
more children will be born with birth defects if abortion laws are
not relaxed. The upside of the Zika virus is the hope that it might
become a driving force behind furthering women’ s repro-
ductive rights in South American countries. Like the Contergan
scandal, Zika may do a lot of good for women in the long run.