The public hearing at the Supreme Federal Court (STF) about the decriminalization of abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy mobilized 821 thousand tweets from 12:00 am last Wednesday (1) until 8 am this Tuesday (7).

Evolution of the debate about abortion

Source: Twitter | Elaborated by: FGV DAPP

There were three main hashtags about the decriminalization. The first one, #abortoécrime, was present in more than 246,000 mentions (30% of the total), and figured in the Trending Topics of several countries. That hashtag was used mostly by users opposed to abortion, but also appeared in mentions favorable to the procedure, especially in the form of ironic comments regarding the high rates of paternal abandonment.

Main hashtags

Source: Twitter | Elaborated by: FGV DAPP

Despite the predominance of the hashtag against abortion, the ten tweets with the highest repercussion in the period were favorable to the decriminalization.

Map of interactions on Twitter about the decriminalization of abortion

Source: Twitter | Elaborated by: FGV DAPP

12.9% – Press profiles and academic institutions favorable to the decriminalization of abortion

67.7% – Profiles favorable to the decriminalization

12.7% – Profiles against the decriminalization

Profiles related to the press and to academic research (green) as well as profiles of ordinary users and women’s rights defense organizations (red) demanded the right of choice for women.

In turn, users opposed to abortion (blue) mostly defended the humanity of fetuses and embryos.