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