Catholic church condones child rape and is against the abortion that will save her life

[MOBIUS]

Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim

Church excommunicates mother and doctors – but not accused rapist

Declaring that "life must always be protected", a senior Vatican cleric has defended the Catholic Church's decision to excommunicate the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old rape victim who had a life-saving abortion in Brazil.

Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, told reporters that although the girl fell pregnant after apparently being abused by her stepfather, her twins had, "the right to live, and could not be eliminated".

In an interview with the Italian newspaper, La Stampa, the cardinal added: "It is a sad case but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons. Life must always be protected."

Police believe the girl was sexually assaulted for years by her stepfather, possibly since she was six. That she was four months pregnant with twins emerged only after she was taken to hospital complaining of severe stomach pains.

The controversy represents a PR nightmare for the Vatican. The unnamed girl's mother and doctors were excommunicated for agreeing to Wednesday's emergency abortion yet the Church has not taken formal steps against the stepfather, who is in custody. Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the conservative regional archbishop for Pernambuco where the girl was rushed to hospital, has said that the man would not be thrown out of the Church, because although he had allegedly committed "a heinous crime", the Church took the view that "the abortion, the elimination of an innocent life, was more serious".

The case has set off fierce debate in Brazil, where abortion is permitted only in cases of rape or a medical emergency. Brazil is one of the most populous Catholic countries, but conservative attitudes in rural areas are strongly at odds with the relatively progressive public view of abortion in major cities.

Even the President, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, has waded into the row. "As a Christian and a Catholic, I deeply regret that a bishop of the Catholic Church has such a conservative attitude," he said "The doctors did what had to be done: save the life of a girl of nine years old. In this case, the medical profession was more right than the Church."

One of the doctors involved in the abortion, Rivaldo Albuquerque, has raised the prospect of public clashes at his local church, telling Globo, the nation's main TV network, that he would keep going to mass there, regardless of the archbishop's order. The young girl at the centre of the case escaped excommunication only because she is still a child in the eyes of Church authorities. The stepfather, who is 23, was arrested last week, apparently trying to escape to another region of the country. Police say he is also suspected of abusing the girl's handicapped 14-year-old sister. He is in protective custody, and if convicted faces up to 15 years in prison.

Ben can now of course tell us why a child rapist can escape the church's punishment, but doctors who have saved the girls life have been excommunicated...?

[Dinner]

Typical BS from religion.

[Ben Kenobi]

Ben can now of course tell us why a child rapist can escape the church's punishment, but doctors who have saved the girls life have been excommunicated...?

How did the doctor save the life of the girl?

The young girl at the centre of the case escaped excommunication only because she is still a child in the eyes of Church authorities

Odd you missed this part of it. Seems the Church holds abortion doctors who claim to be Catholic responsible for their actions. Odd that.

[Ben Kenobi]

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...aCBYZkaA&pli=1

Look at the date on that sucker. 2004. He was advocating for abortion legalization in Brazil during the Johannesburg conference. Odd that. One would presume that his support of abortion has nothing at all to do with this case here, and everything to do with the fact that he's an abortion doctor who stands to profit greatly.

Why am I not surprised?

[DaShi]

The catholic church is full of monsters. The excommunicated are better off.

[DinoDoc]

Ben it's not really safe for a 9 year old mother to deliver a child.

[Ben Kenobi]

Also, this case occurred back in 2009. Why are you reporting on it now? From the abortion doctor himself:

"If the doctors had allowed this pregnancy to develop, we would risk losing the child and the foetuses"

"Dr Rivaldo Mendes de Albuquerque: I didn’t, never. But in fact, it isn’t the first time we’ve been excommunicated. When we started providing services to women victims of sexual violence, and offering them abortions 13 years ago, we were excommunicated then. But being excommunicated has never made me feel distant from God, and from my moral, legal and ethical principles. It’s a hard situation, but I didn’t feel threatened by God. I felt threatened by men.

So, the article lies in saying that he was excommunicated over this case. He was already excommunicated for providing abortion services for the past 13 years and claiming that he was Catholic. Quel surprise.

He goes on to say:

as a Catholic, I believe in God and see the mistakes by men in the name of God. [b]Some positions of the Catholic Church, on birth control, against abortion, against homosexuality, in defence of celibacy, and other examples, only reinforce that the Church seems to be out of tune with people’s thinking,

So it isn't just abortion either. He was excommunicated for publicly opposing many teachings of the Catholic church. Odd that.

So all we have is the opinion that the girl's life was at risk from the pregnancy from her abortion doctor. That's it. Is there any evidence of a medical complication that would justify abortion here?

[Ben Kenobi]

Ben it's not really safe for a 9 year old mother to deliver a child.

And it's not really safe for her to have an abortion either. What happens if he perforates her uterus? She could have delivered by c-section. The abortion doctor doesn't even state how far along she was in the pregnancy.

[DinoDoc]

So all we have is the opinion that the girl's life was at risk from the pregnancy from her abortion doctor. That's it. Is there any evidence of a medical complication that would justify abortion here?

Ben it's common sense that it isn't healthy or safe for a child that young to have a baby.

[Ben Kenobi]

Ben it's common sense that it isn't healthy or safe for a child that young to have a baby.

Why then doesn't the abortion doctor state how far along she was? If her children were older than 25 weeks, she could have delivered via c-section. No abortion necessary.

[Elok]

Well, this is grotesque on multiple levels.

[Elok]

And by "this," I mean the subject of the OP, the thread, and basically everything connected to it. Especially BK.

[Ben Kenobi]

Dr Rivaldo Mendes de Albuquerque, also:

Fr. Edson Rodrigues says that officials at the IMIP sought to deny all access to the parents and child by the tutelary counselors (representatives of the local child protective services) and to Fr. Rodrigues himself

Oh, you don't say. Abortion doctor keeping the girl from getting counseling and assistance. Odd that.

The father, Erivaldo Francisco, said that he had been convinced of the necessity of an abortion by a social assistant named Karolina Rodrigues, a woman with no medical expertise.

According to statistics provided by the pro-abortion Grupo Curumim and derived from the Brazilian government’s DATASUS/MS service, 192,445 girls from 10 to 14 years old gave birth between 2000 and 2006 in Brazil, while 105 died during pregnancy, birth, or having an abortion, that is, 55 out of 100,000 (http://grupocurumim.blogspot.com/200...menina-de.html). Even if one were to assume that none of the deaths were caused by induced abortions, an unlikely assumption, this mortality rate is lower than the average maternal mortality rate for all ages in Brazil, which is 75 out of 100,000 (see http://tabnet.datasus.gov.br/cgi/idb2007/c03.htm).

So contrary to what we are told - the maternal mortality is lower, not higher.

Why?

a cesarean section can be done to protect the child from the rigors of giving birth.

Dr. Elizabeth Kipman Cerqueira, a Brazilian obstetrician, said in a public statement on the case that "I don’t know anyone who died because of the young age at which she was impregnated, if she received adequate accompaniment,"

So she could have carried the twins and delivered safety. The father actually rescinded the permission he gave for the abortion later, as he believed they were making a grave mistake.

Abortion doctor lied to the parents, manipulated them, withheld help and assistance and in the end has the temerity to argue he was acting in the best interests of the child, acting against medical advice.

[Ben Kenobi]

Especially BK.

Elok is not amused by someone who treats his faith seriously.

[Asher]

Elok is not amused by someone who treats his faith seriously.

Elok is not amused by someone who would condemn a child to certain death in the name of faith.

Asher is not amused that not only are you perpetually defending pedophiles, you have now progressed to sentencing children to death.

[DaShi]

The Christian solution to abortion is to kill the child after it is born.

[Ben Kenobi]

Elok is not amused by someone who would condemn a child to certain death in the name of faith.

Not so. I'll take the opinion of an Obstetrician who says it can be done safely over your uninformed opinion.

[Elok]

For the record, I'm also not amused by the apparent glee with which Moby reported the story. "Oooh, a gruesome tale of child-rape, abortion, and injustice! I can't wait to use it to score cheap points off the most-easily-scored-on poster on this site!"

Of course, that pales in comparison to BK's ongoing effort to defend the utterly indefensible, but everybody was pointing that out, so...

[Asher]

Not so. I'll take the opinion of an Obstetrician who says it can be done safely over your uninformed opinion.

A woman!

Someone so utterly incompetent they could never be priests.

A proper Catholic woman wouldn't be so uppity.

[Ben Kenobi]

BK's ongoing effort to defend the utterly indefensible

Taking the child into the hospital and caring for her and her children, and giving her a c-section when the time comes to help her safely deliver her children is indefensible?

[Ben Kenobi]

Someone so utterly incompetent they could never be priests.

Hey, you said it, not me.

[Asher]

Taking the child into the hospital and caring for her and her children, and giving her a c-section when the time comes to help her safely deliver her children is indefensible?

The majority of doctors agreed that a 9 year old cannot birth twins without tremendous risk to her or the twins.

It's indefensible to put her at tremendous risk because her Catholic step-father raped her repeatedly for years.

[Ben Kenobi]

The majority of doctors agreed that a 9 year old cannot birth twins without tremendous risk to her or the twins.

Oh, I see. The same abortion doctors counselling abortion. Is there ever a difficult case where they would counsel against abortion?

It's indefensible to put her at tremendous risk because her Catholic step-father raped her repeatedly for years.

So because her children were a product of rape that means they should be killed? I think the children are worth fighting for and trying to save. It can be done safely without incurring undue harm on the mother, and there are doctors who back up my opinion - ones who aren't going to be paid for perfoming an abortion.

[gribbler]

Why then doesn't the abortion doctor state how far along she was? If her children were older than 25 weeks, she could have delivered via c-section. No abortion necessary.

Read the article. It says she was four months pregnant. The fetuses weren't viable.

[Ben Kenobi]

Read the article. It says she was four months pregnant. The fetuses weren't viable.

So she was already 16 weeks along. They would have been viable in another 9 or so.

If she carried the children safely for 16 weeks - why not another 9? Another 6 would put her children over the bare minimum.

[gribbler]

I don't know the details, but this could have been a medical emergency where waiting for over a month wouldn't have been acceptable. A girl who's only nine and has twins? It's very plausible.

[Asher]

Oh, I see. The same abortion doctors counselling abortion. Is there ever a difficult case where they would counsel against abortion?

Uh, yes?

You think they're giddy to perform abortions?

You probably do. In your simpleton brain you've demonized anyone who isn't a child-raping Catholic.

[Tuberski]

Really, why do you guys bother?

ACK!

[Ben Kenobi]

You think they're giddy to perform abortions?

He's been doing them for 13 years. It's his specialty. What, do you think he's reluctant to do them?

In your simpleton brain you've demonized anyone who isn't a child-raping Catholic.

I just think it's rather odd that someone who was excommunicated 13 years ago for performing abortions, has continued to perform abortions all the while, has gone to conferences objecting to abortion restrictions, and has been publicly dissenting with the Church is complaining about how the church is treating him now.

How is this man a Catholic, and why should we shed a tear over his excommunication?

[Ben Kenobi]

I don't know the details, but this could have been a medical emergency where waiting for over a month wouldn't have been acceptable. A girl who's only nine and has twins? It's very plausible.

That was my question earlier. What's the medical emergency? What's the rush to get the abortion done? Why not wait and deliver the babies via c-section?