Catholic pro-life leader demands protection for abused, pregnant girls

Apr 14, 2010 / 20:09 pm

The chairwoman of Alliance for the Family, Christine de Marcellus de Vollmer, denounced the media push to decriminalize abortion in Latin America by using the tragic cases of young, pregnant sexual abuse victims.  She then called on politicians to adequately protect and show solidarity with such girls and their unborn children.

Speaking with CNA, de Vollmer referred to two specific cases: one of a 10-year-old girl who was raped in Recife, Brazil, and a similar case in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, one of the 18 Mexican states that has enshrined protection of the unborn into law.

Christine de Vollmer began by explaining the need to "powerfully raise our voices so that people do not fall prey to this malicious information. We are obviously in the midst of a campaign to legalize ‘therapeutic abortion’ in cases where the life of the mother is ‘at risk.’ We know that this step always leads to the legalization of all abortions."

She explained that the “girls are not the primary concern of promoters” of therapeutic abortion.  “It is obvious that their priority is the legalization of abortion.”  For evidence to back her claims, de Vollmer said, “a clear sign of this pro-abortion priority” can be found in Recife and Quintana Roo, two places that have been “recent battlegrounds in the fight to legalize abortion, and its promoters want to clear the path by using these extreme cases.”

De Vollmer said it is necessary to provide adequate explanations in order to confront the fallacies of the abortion lobbyists and feminists that are being promoted by the media (even by some Catholic media).

She noted that the first explanation has to do with the term “rape.”  “We here in Latin America know well that we are not dealing with rape (in these cases), but rather with something worse and more common—and which perhaps we don’t want to face—which is this tragic promiscuity.”  De Vollmer said that in these situations, “everybody lives in the same little house and sleeps in the same bed.  And of course all kinds of things happen there, unfortunately including to children.  As the bodies of these little girls are stimulated, they begin to ovulate and become pregnant at some point. It is not 'rape.' In fact, it's something much worse and more endemic."  

The second fallacy of the feminists is the use of the word, “stepfathers.” 

“They aren’t stepfathers. They are simply men who live in the home with the mother and her daughters, oftentimes for just circumstantial reasons, without any serious commitment,” she underscored.

De Vollmer also told CNA, “We need to look at the entire social reality of the abuse of so many little girls. We must not fall into the ‘false compassion’ and reductive reasoning of the promoters of abortion.  They want us to pay attention to the little girl only when she is already pregnant in order to give her what they are selling: abortion.”

“It would be more objective, engaging, and caring to prevent or correct the very common situations of promiscuity and danger of so many young girls before its too late,” she added.

This problem “exists not only in Quintana Roo and Recife. This abuse will not be stopped by legalizing abortion. On the contrary, it will increase because among other things, the visible consequences (of abuse) will be taken away,” De Vollmer said.

“The suffering of these girls and their unborn babies is a call to solidarity,” she continued.  “They need special psychological and medical care and perhaps the option to give these children up in adoption.”

“We must expose this and clarify that these conditions must be addressed by politicians and the Church, rather than only paying attention when the girl gets pregnant,” she underscored.

“Politicians must not rend their garments over these pregnancies when they turn a blind eye to the abuse that goes on daily.  If they do nothing to stop this abuse, it can only end in pregnancy,” she said.

“This is not ‘a medical opinion’ or a ‘medical case’,” de Vollmer stressed.  “It is an eminently social and humanitarian issue, and humanity cannot save itself by killing its weakest members.”