Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Mar 19, 2009 / 16:07 pm
A Brazilian pro-lifer has explained to CNA that the recent abortion performed on a 9 year-old girl in Recife, Brazil was surrounded by serious irregularities, and that the attacks on Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho over his mentioning of excommunications were created by abortion supporters as a diversionary tactic.
According to Alberto Monteiro, nobody knew that the girl was being kept in isolation by a social worker at a state hospital, where preparations for a “legal” abortion were being made. Furthermore, he charged that once employees of the hospital learned the girl’s biological father was willing to save her children with the help of Bishop Francesco Biasin, they allowed a pro-abortion organization to convince the girl and her mother to move to a private clinic where the abortion was finally carried out.
In the wake of the tragedy, the Brazilian and international media devoted its coverage to Archbishop Sobrinho’s statement that all those involved in the abortion, with the exception of the girl, had excommunicated themselves from the Church. Monteiro pointed out that in the lead-up to the abortion, the press gave absolutely no coverage to the efforts of the girl’s father, who was always opposed to the abortion, to try to intervene and help her.
He said the girl’s father exhausted every means to remove the girl from the hospital where she was kept isolated, even though the law indicated that any medical care given to minors must be done with the express approval of the parents. However, the father was only met with resistance and was deceived by a social worker from the hospital, who said the girl would die if she did not undergo an abortion.
“No doctor, psychologist or other professional explained anything to the father,” Monteiro related. “The social worker kept the girl isolated and fought city officials from Alagoinha, the girl’s hometown, who asked that the abortion not go forward. When the father and city officials asked about the health of the girl, who was five months pregnant with twins, the social worker responded: ‘There aren’t three children here, we only have one registered. The other two are embryos.”
The father then sought the help of his local bishop. Bishop Biasin, who has not been interviewed by the Brazilian press, sent doctors and psychologists from the diocese to evaluate the girl, but she had been transferred to another facility by her mother, who was convinced by the pro-abortion NGO Curumim to submit her daughter to an abortion.
Monteiro argued that the pro-abortion movement has tried to sway public opinion in favor of legalizing abortion with cases like that of the pregnant 9 year-old, especially in the wake of actions by the Ministry of Health in January to allow more abortions in cases of rape and fetal deformation.
The Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo reported that the government of President Lula is promoting abortion services, equipping hospitals and training health care workers so that more women will have abortions. The newspaper considered the increase in legal abortions by 43% in one year to be a great achievement.
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“However, if the people know what had truly happened with this girl, abortion would be even more unpopular in Brazil and in the world,” Monteiro stated.
He noted that the lie that the girl’s heath was in danger was repeated constantly by the media.
“The girl’s life was never at risk,” Monteiro asserted. “In Brazil every year there are 30,000 pregnancies in girls under the age of 14, and not one case of death because of pregnancy has been reported as long as there is prenatal care and a c-section delivery.”
Monteiro asserted that the argument put forward by the government of President Lula is that the number of abortions should be increased since women and girls are subjected to abuse and deception, but ironically, that reasoning led to the abuse and deception that the 9 year-old Recife girl suffered.
“They will stop at nothing and will continue talking about a false excommunication of the girl, abusing with impunity these poor women and even these young girls who have fallen into misfortune,” Monteiro said.