Supreme Court Justice Allows Abortion Attack Ads Against Sergio Moro
Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes overturned a local ruling, allowing campaign ads linking Sergio Moro to abortion rights to air on the eve of the election.
In a decision on the eve of Brazil's local elections, Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes cleared the way for campaign advertisements that associate former judge and current gubernatorial candidate Sergio Moro with the defense of abortion rights. The ruling, issued on October 3, 2026, overturned a regional electoral court decision that had granted Moro a right of reply and suspended the controversial ads.
The legal battle in the southern state of Paraná centers on campaign ads produced by Sandro Alex, Moro's rival in the state's gubernatorial race. Alex’s campaign leveraged a passage from Moro's 2002 doctoral thesis, which analyzed the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade. In the academic text, Moro described the American ruling as a "compromise" that was "not unreasonable" given the lack of social consensus. Alex’s campaign simplified this academic analysis into a blunt on-screen graphic reading: "Abortion = Reasonable Solution."
Moro, a conservative figure who rose to international fame as the crusading judge behind the "Car Wash" (Lava Jato) anti-corruption probe, vehemently denies supporting abortion. His legal team argued that the campaign ad manipulated his academic work to fabricate a false personal stance, prompting the regional electoral court (TRE-PR) to grant Moro a right of reply and order the ads off the air.
However, Justice Gilmar Mendes, the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court of Brazil, ruled that the ads did not constitute actionable disinformation. Mendes asserted that the campaign material was based on public documents and fell within the boundaries of legitimate political debate. He emphasized that the judiciary must not act as a censor to shield candidates from sharp criticism or contradictions in their public records.
The ruling underscores the high threshold maintained by Brazil's Supreme Court when defining electoral disinformation, prioritizing free speech even in highly sensitive, polarizing debates on the very eve of the vote. By allowing the ads to return to the airwaves hours before voters head to the polls, the decision highlights how deeply social issues like abortion remain weaponized in Brazilian political campaigns.