BRAZIL: A 9 year-old girl was raped and impregnated by her step-father and got an abortion. Disgusted by the abortion, the Catholic church excommunicated everyone involved except the rapist. However, the case has focused new attention on the sexual abuse of children in Brazil.

This story was barely covered in the US while the case was happening. There is an old Magellan post about it in reference to an El Tempo article. Now the story has made it to the New York Times.

New York Times article: Amid Abuse in Brazil, Abortion Debate Flares

RECIFE, BRAZIL: Abortion is illegal in Brazil, a strongly Catholic country, except in very rare cases. One such case got media attention recently, when a 9 year old girl was found to be pregnant with twins after being repeatedly raped by her stepfather. The doctors determined that the girl was not physically incapable of bringing two children to term at her age. They received permission and performed the abortion.

Their local archbishop, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, condemned the act, and excommunicated the girl, her mother, and every doctor involved in the proceedure. As far as I’ve heard, the stepfather was not excommunicated.

“The law of God is above any human law,” the archbishop told the Globo newspaper on Thursday.

Al Jazeera article: Brazil abortion case sparks row