Catholic Church Excommunicates Doctors for Aiding Raped Child
The Catholic Church in Brazil plans to excommunicate all of the doctors involved in securing an abortion for a 9-year-old girl who became pregnant with twins after being raped by her stepfather. The Church also plans to excommunicate the girl’s mother, according to the BBC.
Abortion is legal in Brazil only in cases of rape or when the mother's life would be endangered. Both conditions appear to have been true in this case. One of the girl’s doctors, Olimpio Moraes, told Reuters that "as doctors, we could not allow a girl of 9 to suffer like this or until she paid with her own life."
The Brazilian Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao also told Reuters "I believe the position of the church is extreme, radical, and inadequate….I am shocked by the radical position of this religion which, wrongly saying it is defending a life, puts another life in danger that is as important as any other."
5/20/2013 Afghan Violence Against Women Law Blocked in Parliament - On Saturday, the Speaker of the Lower House of Afghan Parliament delayed a vote on the Elimination of Violence against Women law after two hours of vociferous debate between conservative religious and more liberal members of Parliament. . . .
5/20/2013 Walmart, American Retailers Refuse to Join Bangladesh Accord - Walmart, along with 13 other major North American companies, refused to sign a legally binding agreement to improve working conditions for overseas factory workers that manufacture their clothes after a garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh killing an estimated 1300 workers, the New York Times reports.
The agreement requires retailers pay $500,000 to improve worker safety measures over a five year period. . . .
