Valuing Life

Although the following piece has been out there for a while now, I have not been able to get it off my mind.  What does it mean to "value life"?  Whose life counts and whose does not?  As an abortion provider, I want every patient, every support person, to know that I honor not only her but also the life within her.  Let us imagine only the best for this young child who has been degraded both by her stepfather and by her religion.  Let us wish only for healing.

Lu

Abortion More Serious Crime than Rape, Says Vatican

Elisabeth Garber-Paul on March 11, 2009 - 2:16pm

Elisabeth Garber-Paul's blog |

On March 4, a nine-year-old, 80-pound girl, pregnant with her stepfather’s twins, was brought into a hospital in Brazil's northeastern city of Recife where doctors performed an abortion. The girl had been raped by the 23-year-old man, according to CNN International, who had been abusing the girl since she was six years old—and had also sexually abuse the girl’s 14-year-old handicapped sister. In Brazil, abortion is only legal in cases of rape, or where the mother’s life is in danger—both of which applied to this situation.

However, the Vatican has gone ahead and excommunicated the doctors who performed the abortions, and the mother of the girl—“everyone involved,” according to Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the region’s Archbishop—everyone, that is, except the rapist. Abortion is an excommunicable sin, but not raping the 9-year-old girl who is supposed to be in your care? Forgive me if I fail to see the justice.

Luckily, President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva has advocated for the rights of the girl. The president—who recently tossed condoms out to the Carnival crowds—has spoken out in support of the girl and the doctors, and even gone as far as to condemn the Vatican’s move, according to London’s Daily Telegraph. "As a Christian and a Catholic, I deeply regret that a bishop has had such conservative behavior," he told the paper. "In this case, medicine is more right than the Church."

Additionally, Brazilians have stepped up in the girl’s defense, petitioning online (in Portuguese) for themselves to be excommunicated in “solidarity with” the mother and the doctors.

Perhaps this is signaling a move in Brazil for more comprehensive family planning legislation. Right now, doctors in the highly Catholic country perform about 1 million abortions per year for those able to afford it, and hospitals are left to treat about 200,000 women suffering from complications after visiting clandestine clinics. Perhaps this ban on abortion is the will of the Church, and not the will of the people. It’s time for the Vatican to step back and see just how outdated their doctrines actually are; and with Spain and Brazil—two of the last Catholic strongholds left—moving towards the acceptance of abortion, maybe the Vatican will be forced to reconsider their stance. Or perhaps that’s just wishful thinking.

Comments

[kate]

I think that the human essence of life is to be able to make decisions. If a person is forced into being a parent for ANY reason, the outcome is usually not good. This is not right what happened. This poor little girl got raped and got her youth taken away from her and she didn't have a choice. So, if someone came up and raped you, you are telling me that you would keep the baby? This is crazy.

[Julie]

Oh geez, Zelda. A fetus is human, but it's not a person. Plus, abortion does NOT "disembowel" a fetus. You need to get your information from real medical sources, not anti-abortion sites.

[ursala]

everybody is tlkin about d abortion and its killin a human being. but are ppl thinkin about this child herself and how could she carry twins for 9 months. and why should she go threw d pain of child birth at 9 years old... she probably dont even realise wat havin a baby is.

[Zelda]

I see Lu is still busy trying to justify her paid assassinations.

A fetus is a person. It's living and human. If it was not, there would be no need to preform an abortion.

Oh, and the difference between contraception or abstinence and abortion is that with the former two, you don't need to reassemble the little person you've just disemboweled to make sure no pieces were left inside the mom.

[Progo35]

If I understand correctly, it was Brazil's primary bishop who excommunicated the girl's family, and the Vatican overturned it or had nothing to do with it(the excommunication was overturned, though I'm not sure whether that was by the Vatican or the bishop who did it in the first place). Either way, the Vatican did not excommunicate this girl's family, this Bishop did, which means he, not the Vatican, is to blame if blame is to be had.

[AnotherDiane]

Abortion is still stopping a process that would otherwise lead to the life of a human being.

So is contraception. So is abstinence. So what?

[Julie]

The fetus is only a ptential person, like an acorn is only a potential oak tree. The question is not weather "Is abortion OK?" but "Is it OK to take away a woman's reproductive rights?" If the answer to the latter is "NO", well, then women who seek abortin shouldn't be hamstrung by the government.

[Diane]

I think the above is the exception and not the rule. It's truly a crime what happened to this girl (rape by her step father). I don't think it's a good example of why abortion should be ok. Abortion is still stopping a process that would otherwise lead to the life of a human being.

[Account Deleted]

I am moved by your article. The Church is out of date. The situation in the Christian world should make the Church see reason. This is Alice from Israeli Uncensored News