By Liz Townsend

Abortion has become a major issue in the Brazilian presidential election, which will be decided October 31. Ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff, who was expected to handily win the first round of voting October 3, instead received only 47% of the vote, forcing a runoff against Social Democracy Party candidate José Serra, according to Agence France Presse.

Evangelical Christians and Catholics began to turn away from Rousseff after her opponents, Serra and Green Party candidate Marina Silva, capitalized on past statements by Rousseff that advocated the legalization of abortion. Abortion is officially illegal in Brazil except for rape or life of the mother, although the country's national health system estimates that 1.5 million illegal abortions occur each year, Inter Press Service reported.

Rousseff can be seen in a 2007 video declaring, "Today in Brazil, it is absurd that abortion has not yet been legalized," according to the Catholic News Agency (CNA). She also gave a 2009 interview to magazine Marie Claire and said, "Abortion isn't easy for any woman. I doubt anyone feels comfortable having an abortion. However, that cannot be the reason why it shouldn't be legal."

After the October 3 election, in which pro-life candidate Silva garnered a surprising 19.3% of the vote and Serra received 33%, Rousseff and her Workers' Party supporters have been busily reframing her position on abortion. "I want to do a campaign that is above all pro-life, with a commitment to the most sacred values," she said in a radio commercial after the first round of voting, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune.

Catholic Archbishop Aldo Pagotto of Paraiba accused the Workers' Party of "deceiving voters" by claiming Rousseff is pro-life, CNA reported. "Ever since it rose to power, the Workers' Party agenda has been the complete legalization of abortion in Brazil," Archbishop Pagotto said in a video released October 11. Current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who handpicked Rousseff as his successor, proposed a bill legalizing abortion and supported United Nations recognition of abortion as a "human right" during his administration, according to CNA.

"As pastor I cannot settle for this kind of misinformation and manipulation of consciences," said Pagotto, CNA reported.

"When democracy becomes this type of demagoguery in order to win votes, a dictatorship is on the horizon."

Serra, former governor of São Paulo, is also characterizing himself as pro-life, with slogans such as "a man who was never caught up in scandals and who has always been consistent, condemning abortion and defending life," even though his record is mixed on abortion, Inter Press Service reported. Recent polls still show Rousseff in the lead, but her 47% support seems to have remained stagnant while Serra's has risen to about 41%, according to Agéncia Estado Brazil.

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