[ABEPF: honest work and the battle against obstacles]. / ABEPF: trabalho honesto e luta contra obstaculos.

PIP: The 1988 Brazilian Constitution defined the right of married individuals to family planning (FP). In 1981 ABEPF (the Brazilian Association of Family Planning Entities) was established in order to unite the private entities that were engaged in FP work. ABEPF has been working in a responsible manner without profit since then, and has earned the right to be granted the title of public federal utility. However, it is paradoxically because of its FP work that ABEPF is not given this title. The opponents of FP continue to obstruct the realization of Paragraph 7 of Article 226 of the Constitution. Public federal utility is an extremely important appellation because of the benefits and status conferred. ABEPF is already recognized as a public utility in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Previous attempts to acquire the title were turned down without justification by Dr. Zilda Arns, the director of CNBB. Then, the director of ABEPF and Dr. Zilda Arns met on December 7, 1992, when another application looked more promising. However, it was vetoed again, with Arns claiming that ABEPF might potentially become a proabortion body. In reality, those who refuse to help a broad, safe, and responsible FP program are themselves accountable for the high abortion rate. With its hypothetical arguments about the potential proabortion image of ABEPF, the representative of CNBB in the Ministry of Health arrogates the right to create all kinds of obstacles to preclude ABEPF from getting this title. While this obstruction continues, hundreds or thousands of fake organizations have falsely benefitted from public resources, and those who have created the obstacles have not done anything against this pattern. The issue here is the destiny of FP and the population policy of this country, because the federal authorities do not want a confrontation with the bishops.^ieng