The girl and the abortion

 
 
Some questions have been raised in regard to the Spiritist position about the case of the 9-year-old girl who was submitted to an abortion after being victim of a rape practiced by her stepfather. The girl’s mother and the doctors’ excommunications pronounced by the Catholic Church authority provoked protests from people everywhere, even the Brazilian president, and no news have been as discussed as that in the country since the case occurred.

The medical justification was given with clarity so that everyone know: the abortion was performed in order to preserve the girl’s life, since it was considered as a high-risk pregnancy  given the fact she is very young and does not have organs sufficiently developed to progress the pregnancy of two babies.

This is what the immortals said about the subject (The Spirits’ Book, question 359):  

– In cases where the life of the mother would be endangered by the birth of the child, is it a crime to sacrifice the child in order to save the mother?  

“It is better to sacrifice the being that does not yet exist then the being that already exists.” 

The reason for such a decision is obvious. If the mother’s life is preserved, she can perfectly get pregnant again. Not otherwise. Besides, in the case of decease, if any child is born, the being will depend on other ones’ help to survive, be raised and supported throughout the life.

However, it is necessary to make clear that the abortion in discussion is justified because of the risk caused by the pregnancy continuance and not because of the rape – although the Brazilian law considers the procedure legal in both cases. The reason by which many Spiritist authors are against the abortion, except the one to preserve the mother’s life, have already been analyzed in another moment.

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In regard to the act of excommunication, we invite the reader to see the article “The new excomunnicated ones”, where the confrare Milton R. Medran Moreira analyses with rare excellence what excommunication used to cause back in a far past and what it causes these days, something that true Christians and we Spiritists can only regret.