Romanian government defies church groups, allows abortion for child rape victim

[Praxius]

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/06/26/romania-abortion.html

The Romanian government ruled Thursday that an 11-year-old rape victim would be allowed to have an abortion in Romania, dismissing the opposition of 20 church groups.

Pro-life Christian Orthodox groups had threatened to press charges if the girl was allowed to have an abortion in Romania because it would be further into the pregnancy than the 14 week legal limit. The girl is 21 weeks pregnant.

The stance of the church groups was different from that of the Romanian Orthodox Church's official position that the decision should be left to the girl's family.

The parents initially wanted to travel to a country where the abortion would be legal.

"We are talking about … the rights of this child, who was subjected to rape and incest," said Theodora Bertzi, a labour ministry official who sat on a committee made up of government officials and experts who ruled on the case.

The girl's pregnancy was revealed earlier this month when her parents took her to a doctor because she appeared sick. She told doctors she had been raped by her 19-year-old uncle, who has since disappeared.

The case has bitterly split the medical community, child rights groups and the public in Romania.

In a statement, the church groups offered "material, spiritual and psychological help" to the girl's impoverished family, adding they would also raise the child in a church institution if the family was unable to care for it.

But splits were apparent even within the church.

Constantin Stoica, spokesman for the Romanian Orthodox Church, to which more than 80 per cent of Romanians belong, said Wednesday it was "an exceptional situation which must be treated in an exceptional manner and the family is the only one to take this decision."

He said the church considers abortion a crime, but this belief applies to normal circumstances and not to incest or rape.

The girl shouldn't have to have her entire life ruined by this situation and regardless of how others feel about the decision, it is not they who will have to live with the consequences.

Adoption is an option, however it sounds to me that the entire population around her is going to know who the kid is, who she is, and chances are, even if she's not taking care of it, the child would be in her life just about everywhere she goes, if not by actual physical form, it'll be in the community gossiping, pointing their fingers, shaking their heads, etc..... who the hell wants to live like that? What child would want to live through that, where the entire community is taking care of you because no one else will, that your mother was raped and your father is her uncle, and your mother doesn't want anything to do with you because she wants to live a normal-ish life as best she can?

The child wouldn't even have a father, since the uncle took off into hiding afterwards, so the child isn't going to have much of a future for him or herself, not to mention any possible physical or mental defects from the similar DNA structures combined......

and expecting an 11 year old girl to go through pregnancy and also give birth to a child she never wanted, nor had the choice in the first place of having, for the sake of other people's ease of morals..... isn't moral.

 

[L Gilbert]

...................it is not they who will have to live with the consequences..........

That can be applied to any situation where people are sitting in judgement.
I say good for Romania.

 

[Praxius]

That can be applied to any situation where people are sitting in judgement.
I say good for Romania.

Well I would much rather take my chances with the known consequences then the unknown that may never happen.

 

[L Gilbert]

No sense of adventure? If the unknown never happened, you wouldn't be any worse off, would you? Can you say that if the unknown did happen, it wouldn't be better?
Anyway, people have followed various superstitions for almost the entire length of intelligent life on this planet, yet it's still a mess. Millions have been killed because of this religious value or that religious moral.
BTW, the important issues here are the health and well-being of the 11 year old and the child she would have. The church can stick their anti-abortion dogma and "morals", as far as I am concerned.

 

[Praxius]

No sense of adventure? If the unknown never happened, you wouldn't be any worse off, would you?

Yes, depending on what that fear of unknown prevented me from doing in my life. If I avoided all drugs, sex, rock and roll, and everything else that some deem immoral or a sin, only to find out after I died that God (If he exists of course) was cool with all of it and wanted us humans to experience the world and all the things in which he created "For Us" and use the judgement that he entrusted in us..... and all I did was stay in my house all my life praying and thanking him for such a dull and useless life and forever living as a shut-in so I can make sure I don't sin and I can goto heaven in the end......

..... I'd be pissed.

I would have been far more worse off..... I would have wasted my life for nothing. I would have avoided and shunned many experiences and adventures through my life out of fear that it was the wrong thing to be doing, based on what other humans dictated to me as being immoral, and using their own interpretations to tell me what God wants of us....... they don't know, you don't know, nobody knows anymore of what God wants of us, then the next person.

Can you say that if the unknown did happen, it wouldn't be better?

Acting on the Unknown is what got the US into Iraq in the first place..... the populace didn't know what was really going on, they only trusted those in power to be speaking the truth, when they wern't.

I will not act on assumptions and fear of the unknown. If I don't know, I will learn.... if I can not learn, then screw it... move onto something else.

If we all acted based on the unknown, then we'd still be burning witches at the stake, people who were innocent of a crime would have been executed or lived decades behind bars, etc.

If acting on the unknown isn't good enough for our laws and courts, then why should it be tollerated in being how we live our lives overall? Why should we let our government officials act on the unknown? Mistakes are made when people do that.

Anyway, people have followed various superstitions for almost the entire length of intelligent life on this planet, yet it's still a mess. Millions have been killed because of this religious value or that religious moral.

Agreed.

BTW, the important issues here are the health and well-being of the 11 year old and the child she would have. The church can stick their anti-abortion dogma and "morals", as far as I am concerned.

Once again, agreed. I just hate it when I hear in an article like this, a bunch of churches and people who follow them start to rag on this little girl for something she never wanted to do in the first place and was never her fault..... and that they expect her to take on this burden on her life (On top of already having to deal with being raped by her uncle) just to suit their own moral score cards.

 

[L Gilbert]

hehe mistakes are also made when people keep sticking to the mistakes that have been known. lmao
IMO, to lay complacent in only what we know is to stagnate. We would NEVER progress if we weren't constantly looking into the unknown. That's what the basis of research is. Besides, I was never very good at history so the only way for me to move is forward into the unknown. lol