Doctor who performed abortion on 9-year old rape victim excommunicated
Brazil is being rocked by a controversy pitting “God’s Law” against the state’s and the opinion of much of the nation. It all started in the state of Pernambuco when a 9-year old girl was admitted to a hospital complaining of stomach pains. Doctors quickly determined that the child, a victim of rape, was pregnant with twins and that her undeveloped uterus did not have the ability to contain one fetus, let alone two. They prescribed an abortion in order to save the little girl’s life. That’s when the Catholic Church stepped in… to try and prevent the abortion.
In Brazil, abortion is legal only in cases where rape is involved but Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, told the country’s Globo TV that God’s Law was above all human law and that anyone involved in or aiding the abortion would be subject to excommunication from the Church.
On Wednesday, March 4th, the procedure was carried out in a hospital in Recife. Archbishop Sobrinho then excommunicated the doctor who performed the procedure, the medical team who assisted him and the girl’s mother who gave permission for it. The little girl (whose name has been withheld for her own protection) was not excommunicated.
