The actress who had 16 abortions does not regret it: “The violence in the country is much worse”

The controversy raised by the 1904 bill, known as the abortion bill, under discussion in the Chamber of Deputies, recalls the struggle of famous people for the right to decide about their own bodies.

One of the first to join the cause was Norma Bengell. In the 1980s, the actress and director told the magazine ‘Isto É’ that she had suffered 16 abortions. The topic resurfaced in his interview with ‘Roda Viva’, on TV Cultura, in 1988.

“The violence that is out there is much more violent than that of a woman having an abortion,” she replied when questioned by a journalist from the bench. “I did it for private reasons. First, I didn’t even have time. I think raising a child is a great responsibility.”

She later defended solitary motherhood, despite rejecting it. “I’m not reactionary. I think single mothers are all great, but I didn’t want to raise a child as a single mother because my mother was a single mother when my parents separated, and I know how hard that was for her.

Norma said that, at the age of 40, she became pregnant and thought about continuing the pregnancy. Shortly thereafter she gave up. “I was exiled and I didn’t know what this child’s future would be like.”

When asked if she would defend the legalization of abortion in Brazil, the actress vehemently agreed. “I maintain that this is hypocrisy in the sense that they perform abortions in the favelas, as they do. Only rich people have the right to have a good abortion, quote unquote. Poor women have abortions and are beaten.”

Norma Bengell made the history of national cinema. She starred in the first full nude on the big screen in the film ‘Os Cafajestes’, by director Ruy Guerra, in 1962. Her participation in ‘O Pagador de Promessas’, awarded the Palme d’Or in Cannes, made her led to an international career.

Her libertarian views, especially regarding sexuality and female behavior, placed her in the crosshairs of the military dictatorship. She had to flee Brazil. She went into exile in France, where she continued to advocate for abortion, divorce and gender equality in the labor market.

On television, the actress made her mark in the role of the evil Vera in the soap opera ‘O Sexo dos Anjos’, broadcast at 6pm on Globo in 1989 and repeated on Canal Viva last year. Between 2008 and 2009 you played the lesbian Deise Coturno in the humorous “Toma Lá Dá Cá”.

Without calls for action, Normal Bengell spent the last years of his life dealing with health problems. She lived alone in an apartment in Copacabana, where she was helped by carers. She died at age 78, of lung cancer, in October 2013.

Source: Terra