Nine-Year-Old Brazilian Girl’s Abortion Fuels Debate In Brazil
28 March 2009, 1:00 PM. By Alex Alvarez
A 9-year-old girl in Brazil is at the center of controversy after having undergoing an abortion. The girl was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant with twins. When she sought medical treatment, doctors informed the girl’s mother that the 79 pound child’s uterus was too small to support one fetus, let alone two. A Brazilian archbishop promptly ex-communicated everyone involved - except the girl’s stepfather.
Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho explained his decision, asserting that “the law of God is above any human law,” and that, while rape is bad, abortion is worse. His decision to excommunicate the child’s mother was later overruled by a conference of bishops who decided she had acted “under pressure” from doctors. They also decided it was only necessary to throw doctors who regularly performed abortions out of the Church.
Sobrinho’s decision begs the question as to whether bishops or other high-ranging clergy members would be held accountable for the girl’s death should she had died in childbirth or during her pregnancy because she had not undergone an abortion. Murder, after all, according to Archbishop Sobrinho, is worse than rape.
Vatican bioethics official Archbishop Rino Fisichella also spoke out against Sobrinho’s initial decision to excommunicate those involved, saying “the credibility of our teaching took a blow as it appeared, in the eyes of many, to be insensitive, incomprehensible and lacking mercy.”
The 9-year-old Alagoinha girl’s case has worked to shed light on the increasing number of young girls in Brazil being raped and impregnated by family members, especially in the country’s northeastern region, where Alagionha happens to be located. The case has also brought attention to Brazil’s laws and abortion practices. There are currently 55 abortion clinics in Brazil, but many are concentrated in wealthier regions of the country. The 9-year-old girl, for example, to be driven about 140 miles to a state clinic in Recife in order to receive treatment.
Doctors at Pérola Byington Hospital said of 47 abortions performed at the hospital last year, 13 were on girls under the age 18… and all were victims of rape. In over 80% of the cases, the patients’ fathers or stepfathers had committed the sexual abuse.
Amid Abuse of Girls in Brazil, Abortion Debate Flares [NY Times]
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Wait….the Catholic Church is terribly out of touch and has demonized some of its members….I am shocked!!!!!!
It’s nice to know that adultery is now wiped off the “no-no” list. That step-father didn’t even get called out on that!
Because it was all for procreation.
As a Protestant Christian and a Biologist, I cannot figure out why the Catholic Church, as an institution, continues not to have a brain and continues to keep it’s followers uneducated and scared to remain in power. Is it not obvious to anyone else that the real criminal who should be excommunicated is the step-father!? The body of a 9-year-old was never designed by God to carry a child to term - and that the Catholic Church should be ashamed for not protecting the life a a child. I am not condoning abortion, but by placing the burden of such a sin on an innocent child and risking her life for two fetuses that probably would not have made it anyway is abhorrent. It just shows how little trust the Catholic church actually puts in the hand of our Great God in order to hold on to its earthly power. Wouldn’t you rather have those aborted souls live happily with Jesus than live a life of suffering, deformity and death here on earth (because that is probably what would have happened) ?
¡Ay, Virgen!
As a fellow survivor (although, thankfully, not of incest), I hope this girl and her family are getting the support they need. I thought losing my favourite toy was traumatic at 9. I can’t imagine what a 9 year old brain thinks of a father-figure getting her pregnant.
This case guarantees years of therapy.
I hope she grows up a strong, intelligent woman who can speak on behalf of survivors and serve as a role model for ALL victims of incest.