Brazil yesterday increased its requirements for rape victims seeking an abortion, including a rule that medical staff must tell the woman that she can see the embryo or fetus via ultrasound.

The new regulations published by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s health ministry also demanded that the rape “must be reported to police” not considering the woman’s wishes, that she must give doctors “a detailed account” of the incident, and that she must be “expressly warned” she can be charged for fraud and illegal abortion if she is unable to prove her claim.

It is worthy of note that Brazil permits abortion only in cases of rape, danger to the woman’s life, or the severe birth defect anencephaly. However, these exceptions are controversial among the religious right in Latin America’s largest country, which has powerful conservative Catholic and Evangelical Christian communities.

The new rules were issued by the interim health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, an active-duty army general, amid an outcry earlier this month over the case of a 10-year-old girl who was purportedly raped by her uncle and was refused an abortion in her home state, Espirito Santo. She was then flown across the country to the northeastern city of Recife, where she was able to undertake the process. However, she was met outside the hospital by far-right activists and politicians who carried out a furious protest.

A video posted online by far-right activist Sara Winter, a prominent Bolsonaro supporter with close ties to Women’s Minister Damares Alves, an Evangelical pastor notified demonstrators of the girl’s identity and the hospital where she was to be admitted in.

The new policy from the health ministry, published in the official gazette, brought about an immediate uproar from abortion rights supporters.

A leftist lawmaker and doctor, Jandira Feghali wrote on Twitter: “I have just introduced a bill in Congress to block today’s health ministry decree, which is an obstacle to legal abortion and constitutes psychological violence against women.”

However, sixteen lawmakers in the lower house, including Feghali, have written a letter to the United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet urging her to intervene against the decree as a matter of protecting women’s rights.