Can I have an abortion if I am pregnant and infected with Zika virus? Is it reasonable to wait 2 years before getting pregnant?

Recently, Brazil is worried that the Zika virus will cause microcephaly in newborns, and recommends that women wait until the crisis is over before getting pregnant. However, many health organizations believe that the public may not be able to do so because most people in Central and South American countries cannot easily get contraceptives, and many women get pregnant unexpectedly due to rape. They believe that Central and South American countries, including Brazil, should reconsider their abortion policies and think about whether they should allow mothers with problematic fetuses to legally abort.

Can I have children if I am infected with Zika virus?

Many organizations have called on Central and South American countries to reconsider their abortion and contraception policies as the Zika virus, which can cause women to give birth to babies with small heads, is rampant in Latin America. They are worried that many women will have abortions due to the Zika virus and eventually die from unsafe abortions.

Currently, there are reports of people infected with Zika virus in many countries in Central and South America. Patients infected with Zika virus usually experience fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis. In addition, although there is no definite proof that Zika virus is related to microcephaly, Brazilian scholars speculate that Zika virus is related to the surge in microcephaly babies.

Microcephaly is a neurodevelopmental disorder that refers to a condition in which a person's head circumference is more than three standard deviations smaller than the average for their age and gender. Newborns with microcephaly will have affected development, problems with brain function, and may even die prematurely.

Waiting 2 years to get pregnant is not reasonable

In order to prevent newborns from being infected with microcephaly, many countries in Central and South America recommend that women wait two years before getting pregnant. However, reproductive health groups believe that this recommendation is impossible because most people in Central and South American countries cannot easily obtain contraceptives or undergo sterilization, and many women become pregnant accidentally due to rape.

"We are calling on governments to make contraception more accessible, especially to low-income groups," said Giselle Carino, deputy director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). "And governments must set up more safe abortion services. We also need to educate women about the dangers of Zika and what options they have if they find out they are pregnant."

Governments in Colombia, El Salvador, Ecuador and other countries have advised people to postpone pregnancy plans, but IPPF believes this advice is unreasonable because about half of pregnancies in these regions are unplanned and sexual assaults are often reported.

Can a pregnant girl from Central and South America have an abortion?

Central and South American countries have strict regulations on abortion. For example, in Brazil, women can only have an abortion if they become pregnant due to rape, are less than 20 weeks pregnant, or if the fetus endangers the safety of the mother. Abortion is illegal in other cases.

Because abortion is not allowed by law, 95% of abortions in Latin America are performed in unsafe environments. According to a survey by the Guttmacher Foundation, approximately 2.3 million women in Central and South America have unmet needs for contraception, which causes 75% of pregnancies in the region.

Many pregnant women are even underage children. In Ecuador, 27% of women who die from pregnancy and childbirth are adolescent girls. In Central and South America, there are about 4.4 million abortions each year, 95% of which are unsafe abortions, and 1 million women are sent to the hospital for unsafe abortions.

Katja Iversen, chief executive of Women Deliver, said illegal abortions would increase if the government did not change its stance on abortion. "It's really, really a concern because people are worried about Zika right now, they're really scared," she said.

Many Central and South American countries ban abortion. For example, in the Catholic country of Paraguay, last year it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant, but gave birth to the child because the country bans abortion.

Did Brazil have special cases before to allow abortion?

In addition to microcephaly, there is another disease called anencephaly, in which children lack most of their brains. Brazil ruled in 2012 that pregnant women can have abortions if their fetuses have anencephaly. The judges who voted in favor of abortion believed that complications caused by anencephaly would make it impossible for the fetus to survive, so they supported abortion in this case.

The Anis organization, which had called on the court to allow women pregnant with anencephaly to have abortions, plans to file a lawsuit again, asking the court to allow women pregnant with microcephaly to have legal abortions, while also protecting people's right to contraception and early diagnosis and treatment.

However, Brazil's Federal Medical Council told the BBC that babies born with microcephaly are generally viable.

"(The Brazilian government's recommendation that women delay pregnancy) is not a serious request and may be an attempt to avoid a proper discussion about abortion," said Denis, a researcher at the Anis organization.