Earlier this month, the Health Regulatory Authority (ERS) determined the opening of a monitoring process in all facilities that provide voluntary termination of pregnancy to check for restrictions on access to the practice.
The announcement was made this Wednesday by ERS President Pimenta Marinho in the parliamentary committee on health, where he was heard at the request of the PS to provide clarification regarding any restrictions on access to abortion (IVG).
Pimenta Marinho said it was decided on March 9 to start a monitoring process to track and monitor all health care providers’ compliance with existing procedures and “to check if there are restrictions or any restrictions” in access to IVG with the participation of all organizations. National Health Service.
“We requested information from the GSS. [Direção-Geral da Saúde] as well as to the Order of Doctors, namely on the issue of conscientious objection to military service, so that we also have a global view of the situation,” the official said.
Attending the hearing, Mariana Mota Torres, an ERS member, added that this monitoring process covers all public and private institutions recognized as IVG practitioners and is “largely” based on a request for information that “has already been initiated.” for all operators.
“Most of this information will be used for a study to be carried out by the Health Regulatory Authority, whose schedule ends at the end of May, and therefore we hope to be able to provide relevant information there,” on issues raised by MPs, such as possible regional asymmetries , the issue of remoteness from access to this assistance, as well as “assessment of trends,” he stressed.
The official emphasized that this process has “another front of intervention”, which is that if effective restrictions are found during the stages, “the regulator will act immediately within its powers” and which can range from issuing an instruction up to an actual violation access rights to the IVG, which may be an administrative offense.
Pimenta Marinho informed deputies that of the earlier investigations by the ERS, most were related to difficulties in articulation between entities, which “force women to walk a little from side to side in search of paper, restricting access, saying that it is necessary to go through primary health care elsewhere without protocols of action or articulation with other subjects.”
The ERS hearing came after Diário de Notícias (DN) reported in February that “public hospitals are violating the abortion law”, following an investigation that reported several instances where the law was not enforced.
The ERS president recalled that IVG is “a statutory right for women” and that “reports that have appeared in the media bring some surprises about some of the value judgments that are often also made about women’s attitudes or women’s freedom.” solution”.
“And, therefore, we had a problem that the board of directors analyzed what was condemned, saw what was done previously from the perspective of the regulator, and saw how we can act in the future in light of what we read what we hear and what reaches the controlling body,” he said.