The president of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), minister Edson Fachin, scheduled the trial of the case on the decriminalization of abortion for this Friday (17th), starting at 8pm.
The analysis takes place in a virtual plenary session in an extraordinary session, which is scheduled to end at 11:59 pm on Monday (20). Earlier, Barroso asked the president of the STF to guide the trial in order to cast his vote.
When scheduling the trial, Fachin highlighted that “the request made by the Honorable Minister Luís Roberto Barroso takes place on this date, at a time when, given the imminent retirement of His Excellency, the only possibility for the Minister to vote is through the convening of the extraordinary virtual plenary”.
Despite this, any of the ministers able to vote can request a view or highlight of the trial.
The case was suspended following a request for prominence by Barroso himself, following a vote by the rapporteur, Rosa Weber.
Barroso decided to vote on the abortion action before actually leaving office — today is his last day at the Court.
As shown by the CNN Brazilthe minister had already told assistants that he was considering speaking out about abortion as a kind of “final act” before retirement. Thus, he would mark his position, in the same line as that presented by minister Rosa Weber in 2023.
That year, Rosa voted to decriminalize the voluntary termination of pregnancy up to the 12th week of pregnancy. Then, Barroso asked for emphasis to take the case from the virtual plenary to the in-person one.
With Barroso’s vote formally registered, his successor in the STF chair will not be able to speak out in this process. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has already warned allies that he will nominate the current attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias.
