A New Example

As an abortion rights advocate, I have been accused of over playing the classical example of pro-life groups being prepared to deny an abortion even to a 12 year old rape victim. Maybe the criticism is warranted, so let me provide an updated example.

In Brazil recently, a nine year old girl became pregnant with twins as a result of being repeatedly raped by her step-father. Since she was barely four feet tall and weighed only 79 pounds, doctors concluded that she would die if she carried the twins to term. She therefore had an abortion. Catholic Archbishop Jose Cardosa Sobrinho then excommunicated the parents and the two doctors who performed the abortion. As some believe, this means they will be cast into hell and suffer for all eternity. The only one not excommunicated was the step-father who had raped the girl.

In the Vatican, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Roman Catholic Church’s Congregation for Bishops supported the Archbishop’s decision.

For further information, just Google "Brazilian girl’s abortion."

This is an example of church orthodoxy being cruel, insensitive and lacking in common sense. In addition, the problem is exacerbated by the Pope’s position that the use of condoms or other artificial birth control is unacceptable, even though that would reduce the need for abortions.

Almost daily, I see letters to the editor by pro-life people raising the same dogmatic religious objections to abortion.

A humanistic approach operates on a much higher moral ground by promoting sex education and birth control to eliminate the need for an abortion and, if that fails, to let a woman have control of her own body and to decide if she wants an abortion. Clearly, we need not only freedom of religion but also freedom from religion.

George W Iliff