A Brazilian judge has refused to grant a woman an abortion of a fetus developing without a brain after deciding "there was no imminent danger of death for the mother," the daily Estado de Sao Paulo reported Tuesday.

The judge ruled that, under the circumstances, granting a termination of the pregnancy would violate the right to life enshrined in Brazilian law, which prohibits abortions with rare exceptions, the newspaper said in the report carried on its website.

Only cases of rape or a threat to the mother's life can justify a legal abortion in Brazil. Millions of women undergo voluntary abortions in the country in illicit operations that cost the lives of thousands each year, according to the health ministry.

The leftwing government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has sought to decriminalize abortions but has butted up against fierce opposition from the influential Catholic Church.