“Here, just between us, there is no one filming”, said lawyer Andrea Hoffmann Formiga during a talk at , in March 2025. “When we arrive as Instituto Isabel, feminists even think we are on their side”, she concluded, with a laugh.
The joke was tailor-made for the audience at the event that brought together, in São Paulo, dozens of politicians, religious people and activists against . Despite the joke, the organization founded by Formiga in 2024 adopts a pragmatic line that sometimes includes articulating with “feminists”, if necessary.
The institute, named in honor of the princess, although it omits the royal title so as not to be associated with the defense of the monarchy, aims to “work in a professional and strategic way to positively influence decision makers and policy makers in Brazil”, according to its website. In other words, lobbying for causes of “human dignity”, as the lawyer defines it. Sheet.
“We talk to everyone, we are non-partisan, but most of our agendas align with right-wing parties, yes,” he says. The most important of these is the defense of life “from conception to natural death”, which means, explains Formiga, being against abortion in cases in which it is currently decriminalized by the Penal Code, such as rape, and also against assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Furthermore, the Isabel Institute declares itself in favor of expanding “parental rights”, religious freedom and freedom of expression.
The organization has two contracted lawyers and ten volunteers, according to the founder, but it arose from the combination of Formiga and two other professionals who worked behind the scenes and wanted to see the moral agenda with which they identify advance.
With 77 thousand followers on Instagram, co-founder Andressa Bravin has been publishing posts following the National Congress on important votes for the conservative agenda, such as issues related to abortion, for years. Formiga, who is a partner at a law and government relations firm, works behind the scenes in Brasília to advance projects of interest to clients. The third original formulator left the project.
Catholic and mother of four children, the lawyer took charge of the project and became its best-known face. He claims to act pro-bono and support his actions with donations. “But we are looking at other forms of financing, such as grants from foreign organizations,” he says. It also does not rule out receiving public revenue, such as parliamentary amendments, in the future, “if there is a project that fits”. THE Sheet found no record of sending amendments to the institute’s CNPJ.
Isabel first caught the attention of Sheet at the anti-abortion event in March 2025. Sandwiched between speeches by the president of the Brazil Without Abortion Movement, Lenise Garcia, and senator Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE), Formiga’s lecture listed in a PowerPoint the priorities of activists against abortion in the Senate, the Chamber and the Judiciary.
“The rite of changing a Constitution is more difficult, we need approval in two rounds, from three-fifths of the House, which is a high number, there are 513 federal deputies…”, he discussed the real possibility of /12 which, voted on by the Chamber’s Constitution and Justice Committee in December 2024, had been paralyzed since then.
The Senate would be a more favorable environment, because the presidency of the Human Rights Commission is (-DF), he explained. Until the end of 2025, the bills listed by her in . Now they await analysis from the Social Affairs Committee, where Formiga thinks they will not go any further — “because the presidency [do senador Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI)] is no longer as sensitive to these issues, but if there is a window of opportunity we will act.”
The institute resembles the American conservative organization Heritage Foundation, created in 1973 and sponsor of Project 2025, a management program that included a harshly anti-immigration agenda, reproductive rights and in favor of a minimal state. The project was rejected by Trump during the campaign — but the president appointed at least five people linked to him to form the government.
Formiga finds the comparison amusing and says that he was not inspired by Heritage to found Isabel, but that he wants to get closer to the Americans. “A lot of people have already compared us, so I want to schedule a meeting with them,” he says.
While the Trumpist organization declares itself openly conservative, Formiga rejects the title. The theses with which they operate, he states, are natural law. This legal theory argues that there are innate rights to human beings and that laws cannot contradict them.
Although associated with conservatism in current times, with authors such as John Finnis using the idea of the fundamental right to life to argue for the illegality of abortion, natural law has already been linked to progressive agendas, such as abolitionism. Hence the choice of paying homage to the Brazilian princess who signed the Lei Áurea.
“And also because she’s a woman…”, says the lawyer. “When we are talking about defending women, a complete defense of human dignity and so on, yes, we are feminists, right?”
She admits that they would hardly be defined that way by the parliamentarians who make up the feminist group in Congress. Despite this, it exemplifies moments when agendas crossed.
The Isabel Institute worked to approve the expansion of and by . In the first case, “we encountered a lot of resistance from parliamentarians more linked to the market, on the right, and we had to do some convincing…”. In the second, the concern was “the issue of indoctrination in schools, of having cell phones to record. We understand that there may be, but the protection of children is much more important.”
In 2025, the group counts among its victories the participation in the (Council for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents) on legal abortion; forcing the São Paulo Women’s Hospital to perform abortions; and the Creation of the Pro-Life Coalition, a group of councilors and mayors who aim to replicate projects against the procedure at the municipal level.
This should be a busy year for Isabel. “Thinking about an election year, right?” says Formiga, near the end of the conversation. “We want to be able to subsidize potential candidates so that they have the same flags that we defend.”
