Excommunication Of Brazilian Abortion Doctors In Case Of Nine-Year-Old Rape Survivor Fuels Controversy

The Roman Catholic Church's excommunication of a Brazilian doctor and medical team for performing an abortion on a nine-year-old rape survivor has sparked outrage from the public and "fueled a controversy reaching the highest levels of church and state," CNN.com reports. According to CNN.com, the abortion was performed in the fourth month of gestation after the girl became pregnant with twins, allegedly after being raped by her stepfather (De Moura, CNN.com, 3/11). According to London's Daily Telegraph, abortion is illegal in Brazil except in cases of rape or when the woman's life is in danger, both of which were applicable in this case. The physicians said that the girl was too small to safely carry twins to term and that her life would be in danger if the pregnancy were to continue (Downie, Daily Telegraph, 3/11). At a national convention on women's health this week, the doctor who performed the procedure received a standing ovation during the opening ceremony. Brazilian Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao, who hosted the event, called on the audience to hail the medical team's "brilliant" work in performing the abortion.

CNN.com reports that the doctor and medical team, along with the girl's mother, were excommunicated by Archbishop Don Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Brazil's northeastern city of Recife, where the procedure took place. Sobrinho said the excommunication is "applicable" for "the adults, especially those who approved it, performed this abortion," adding, "God's law is above human laws." However, the child's stepfather was not excommunicated because a "graver act than (rape) is abortion, to eliminate an innocent life," he said, adding that the child was not excommunicated because the church is "benevolent when it comes to minors." A Vatican cleric told an Italian newspaper that he supports the excommunication and the archbishop's decision.

Temporao said the "question posed is very simple. There is a Brazilian law which states that a pregnancy can be interrupted in case of rape." He said doctors must put law before religion, adding that it is "legitimate for the church to have its dogmas, but these dogmas must not be imposed on society as a whole." Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva said, "As a Christian and a Catholic, I find it deeply lamentable that a bishop of the Catholic Church has such a conservative attitude. In this case, the medical profession was more right than the church."

A report by IPAS -- a nongovernmental organization that works with the health ministry -- shows that more than one million Brazilian women undergo illegal abortions annually and that about 250,000 are treated for traumas from botched procedures. Olimpio Moraes, one of the doctors involved with the procedure, said he is grateful for the archbishop's excommunication decision because the controversy helps illuminate Brazil's restrictive abortion law. He said women in rural areas of the country are victimized by the law. Beatriz Jalli, an IPAS official, said the case is helping to change the foreign perception that Brazilian women fit a liberated "Girl from Ipanema" image. "We live in a male-chauvinistic, patriarchal society with a very high rate of sexual crimes against women and minors," she said, adding, "Our reproductive rights are constantly criminalized" (CNN.com, 3/11).

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