Sao Paulo, Brazil, Mar 23, 2009 / 14:45 pm
Officials in the Brazilian state of Bahia have extended protection to a 13 year-old girl—four months pregnant after being raped by her father—and to her unborn child, thus preventing a tragic ending to a story similar to that of a 9 year-old girl in Recife who was pregnant with twins and recently forced to undergo an abortion.
According to the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, the girl and her guardian appealed to government officials to help defend the life of the baby. The father of the girl was arrested, and since her mother had died and no other family member was willing to take her in, she was allowed to express her own will.
“The greatest right of the child is the right to life,” said Lindidalva Santana, an attorney who is representing the girl. Bruno Texeira of the attorney general’s office of Bahia said an abortion would only be allowed if the girl’s life were at risk.
Paulo Leao of the Catholic Union of Lawyers of Rio de Janeiro praised the decision of the girl, who officials said had been abused for years by her father.
Carlos Polo, director of the Population Research Institute for Latin America, explained that this case and that of the 9 year-old girl in Recife are just a few of the many cases that the government and radical feminists are attempting to use to gain public support for abortion, in order to achieve “total legalization in Brazil.” “Their aim is to set a precedent that all minor girls who are pregnant are in danger of death and must therefore abort. By recasting all cases in this way they would be covered by the plan to legalize abortions in cases of life of the mother,” said Polo.