Posted on 09/09/2007 8:14:52 PM PDT by monomaniac
By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
LATIN AMERICA, September 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) --Two abortions were prevented by government action in two different Latin American countries last week.
In Argentina, a judge issued an order preventing the mother of a unnamed mentally handicapped girl from obtaining an abortion for her child. The girl, who is 19 years old, was reportedly raped by someone close to the family, and doesn't fully understand her situation.
When her mother discovered the pregnancy, she took her child to a local hospital and demanded that they perform an abortion. In Argentina, however, approval by a judge is necessary to carry out the procedure. Judge Claudia Salomon of the state of Parana heard the case. When defense attorney Maria Marcela Piterson made a motion to prevent the abortion to defend "the rights of the unborn person" involved in the case, Judge Salomon ruled in her favor.
Salomon ordered the Infant Maternity Hospital San Roque to cancel its plans for an abortion. The child is now under the protective custody of the Council for Minors, and her mother is reportedly demanding her return.
In Nicaragua, an anonymous 10 year old girl referred to in the media as "Evita" was recently impregnated by a relative, who is being sought by police. The girl is 27 weeks pregnant, and has been moved from her impoverished community of Bluefields to the capital city of Managua to receive better treatment. She is under the supervision of the Ministry of Health.
A committee of doctors who examined "Evita" concluded that an abortion at 27 weeks would pose a risk to the girl's life, but nonetheless pro-abortion feminists in the country have called for the child to be aborted. Mayra Siles of the pro-abortion "Women's Network Against Violence" even accused the government of "kidnapping the girl".
The Women's Network has lost credibility in Nicaragua after recent revelations that a child known as "Rosita" for whom they obtained an abortion in 2003, was probably raped by her stepfather, and the abortion prevented him from being detected for another four years. "Rosita" was recently impregnated again, and the stepfather, after having admitted his paternity of Rosita's second child, is now in police custody (see recent LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07081602.html).
All direct abortions are illegal in Nicaragua according to a law passed in 2006, although medical procedures to save a mother's life that might threaten her fetus are regarded as legal. Pro-abortion forces within and outside of the country has waged a continuous campaign to overturn the legislation.
Don’t kill the baby. However, the step-father.....
Little kids getting raped definitely puts a different face on this issue. “The life of the mother” and “in the case of rape” clauses on abortion often seem to be there to distract from the issue.
It is important to remember that, whatever horrible violence was inflicted on these children, it is the perpetrator and not the baby that is to blame. There is a raw emotionality to it, but the best cure is to make punishment for sexually assaulting a child about a billion times more severe than it presently is.
Stories like this are heartbreaking. Especially in the case of the girl who doesn’t even understand her situation. How much sicker, then, is the man who raped her?
You can’t blame these girls’ mothers for wanting the abortions... But at the same time it was these mothers’ choices that led to the rapes in the first place. Especially in the case of the stepfather who got the 10yo pregnant twice... How often was he assaulting her for this to happen, and are we to believe the mother really didn’t know? A sick, sick situation.
These girls will wear the physical and emotional scars of this for their entire lives, but they will be spared the eventual, inescapable guilt that an abortion would bring. I only hope that these events don’t hamper them from finding love or happiness in a real family when they’re grown.
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