Jaime Ferreira Lopes: 

“Life, yes. Abortion, never!”

The founder of the National Pro-Life Citizenship Movement
(Brazil Without Abortion) talks about the aims of the
movement, its difficulties, the challenges it has faced
and the results achieved so far

	Jaime Ferreira Lopes (photo), from Rubim, in Minas Gerais state, has been in the Brazilian capital, Brasília, for 18 years. He is the president of the VIDA Spiritist centre in the outskirts of the city. He is the founder of the National Pró-Life Citizenship Movement (Brazil Without Abortion). His battle against the legalisation of abortion in Brazil is the
Jaime, when did you become a Spiritist?

In 1997, after five years of a spiritual desert, following my decision to leave the Franciscan Order of which I was a member and to cease being a Catholic priest. 

What is the National Pró-Life Citizenship Movement? 

It is a movement gathering groups and institutions from any religious or political background that embrace the basic principle of defending life, from conception to natural death. The aim is to avoid the legalisation of abortion in our country. The movement was founded in July 2006. The year before, a bill to legalise abortion was defeated by a single vote at a parliamentary committee in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. That is when I realised we need to begin a permanent mobilisation. It took us five years to defeat that bill. 

What has been the role of Spiritism in the Pró-Life Movement? 

A crucial one. Essential. It is not a Spiritist movement, but it is important that Spiritists join and contribute with the job being done. The majority of our members are Catholic, reflecting the fact that more than 70% of the Brazilian population are Catholic. But we also have Protestants, Evangelicals, Spiritualists and people who are not affiliated to any religion. We are all focused on avoiding that Brazil becomes another country in the planet where abortion is legal, which poses an additional problem for the reincarnation of the Spirits. Working to help reincarnation is a key aim of all Spiritists. 

What was the most memorable moment of the movement? 

It was the mobilisation of the people in six National Marches on the capital, Brasília, and all the gatherings and demonstrations across the country to raise awareness in the Brazilian Congress to reject the decriminalisation of abortion. 

What have been the main achievements and the main challenges faced by the movement? 

We have defeated the bill that proposed the total legalisation of abortion up to the ninth month of pregnancy. And we have managed to get access to the national media in various instances. We have also got access to a wider public through talks in schools and other communities linked to religious groups. But there is great scepticism from the media. They often refuse to put forward the pro-life arguments and tend to go first to pro-abortion activists when reporting on the issue. The pro-abortion movement gets funding inside Brazil and from other countries, all supporting the “woman’s right to choose”. We lack the resources they have, we still have a reduced number of volunteers, we face a problem with our own religious institutions, which rarely make the pro-life battle a priority and we still struggle to unify the movement, due to religious misunderstandings and prejudices among ourselves. 

How can the Spiritists increment their contribution with the movement? 

They must take an active role in the formation of committees at a municipal and state level. This is after all a job to support the reincarnation of Spirits. We now have another project to which Spiritists should get engaged. It is called Rede Renascer, or Rebirth Network – Spiritists for Life. The aim is to save lives from abortion. Volunteers are asked to go and meet women who are considering aborting their children. It is counselling, or fraternal assistance, carried out outside the boundaries of Spiritist Centres. This is a great challenge, but a very important one, as clandestine, illegal abortion is unfortunately a common occurrence in our country. The Vida (Life) Institute, set up in 2011, has attended more than 30 women who were considering opting for an abortion, with a success rate of 40%. The main thing is for us to spare reincarnating Spirits from abortion, is to contribute towards the success of the reincarnation process on our planet. Rede Renascer is aiming at having at least one volunteer in each Brazilian town or city, someone trained and capable of helping a desperate mother-to-be, facing the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy. 

Your final thoughts, please. 

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to talk about this work in defense of life that I have been involved with. But the most important is to raise awareness of all Spiritists, people who, as they read this interview, may consider the possibility of engaging in the pro-life effort, or fight. Fight, that is the right word to describe this Job, but it is a “good battle”, to use a term of Paul, the apostle. It is about engaging all the efforts, on the limit of our powers, to make sure the most fundamental of rights prevail, the right to life. Thank you! Thank you very much indeed for this opportunity! Life, yes. Abortion, never!