Monday, March 9, 2009

The abortion issue doesn't get any more stark than this.

A Catholic archbishop has excommunicated people who helped a 9-year-old girl in Brazil get an abortion. (Via Reproductive Rights Prof Blog.)

She got pregnant by being raped.

The people who were excommunicated are the girl's mother (for authorizing the abortion) and the doctors who performed it. The Vatican has defended the excommunications.

More details: (1) She was pregnant with twins. (2) The doctors performed the abortion because they were concerned that a 9-year-old, 80-pound girl wouldn't survive the pregnancy.

UPDATE: The adults who helped her get the abortion were excommunicated from the Catholic Church by a regional archbishop, and that decision was approved by the Vatican. But the archbishop specifically refrained from excommunicating the rapist — the girl's stepfather. The archbishop tells us that the rape of the 9-year-old girl was not as bad as the abortion.

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