Brazil's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday (23) that biological and adoptive mothers are entitled to the same maternity leave, regardless of their employment status. In case ADI 7495, a form of lawsuit used to test the validity of laws, the full bench granted 120 days of paid leave, extendable by another 60 days, to private-sector workers under the CLT, the country's labor code, as well as to federal civil servants, members of the Armed Forces and federal prosecutors. Justice Alexandre de Moraes wrote the opinion.
The court struck down provisions that treated pregnant women and adoptive mothers differently in the federal civil servant statute (Law 8.112/1990), in the CLT, in the organic law of the federal prosecution service, in the Empresa Cidadã program and in the Armed Forces parental leave rules. Leave now starts from the ninth month of pregnancy, childbirth, hospital discharge of the newborn or the mother (whichever comes last), the adoption or the granting of custody for adoption.
The case and the arguments
The lawsuit was filed by the Attorney General's Office (PGR), which pointed to unequal leave periods depending on the worker's status. Before the ruling, the CLT granted 120 days, extendable by 60 if the employer joined the Empresa Cidadã program; federal civil servants who adopted received 90 days for children up to one year old and 30 days in other cases; the Armed Forces had no adoptive leave; and the law covering federal prosecutors allowed only 30 days for adopters of children up to one year. Attorney General Paulo Gonet asked the court to secure 180 days of leave for all mothers, whatever their employment regime. The trial began on September 16 and ended on September 23, with the bench following the rapporteur; legal news site Legalcloud reported the vote as unanimous.
In their votes, the justices argued that maternity leave serves above all the child's interests. Justice André Mendonça noted that between September 2024 and October 2025 the court examined more than a dozen cases on the issue, with precedents against discrimination between biological and adoptive mothers. For Justice Nunes Marques, a child's care needs do not change with the mother's professional status.
"The Constitution protects human realities, not the legal nature of the professional bond of mothers and fathers," Nunes Marques said, according to the court's release.
For formal private-sector workers the practical change is small, since the CLT already granted 120 days to biological mothers and also covered adoption, as reported by Folha de S.Paulo. Labor and social security lawyer Adriana Faria, quoted by the newspaper, said the ruling consolidates the view that the protection applies regardless of how motherhood is formed and of the employment bond.
Immediate effects and next steps
On a suggestion from Justice Cristiano Zanin, the court set the effects of the decision from the close of the trial on September 23, rather than from publication of the official record, to protect mothers and children already on leave who might struggle to secure the extension. Leave periods already finished are unaffected. The bench also noted that it is up to Congress to define whether and how the leave may be shared among family members. Procedurally, the next step is publication of the judgment record, but the ruling already applies to all ongoing and future leave.