Gov't committee rules that 11-year-old pregnant rape victim can have abortion

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The Associated Press Published: June 26, 2008
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BUCHAREST, Romania: A government committee dismissed the opposition of 20 church groups and ruled Thursday that an 11-year-old rape victim would be allowed to have an abortion in Romania.

Pro-life Christian Orthodox groups had threatened to press charges if the girl was allowed to have a termination in Romania on exceptional grounds since it would be beyond the 14 week legal limit for abortions.

The parents of the girl wanted to travel to Britain where it would be legal for the girl, who is 21 weeks pregnant, to have an abortion.

The stance of the church groups was in contrast to the Romanian Orthodox Church's official view which was the decision should be left to the girl's family.

A committee of government officials and experts set up this week to rule on the controversy said late Thursday that the girl could have an abortion in Romania.

"We are talking about ... the rights of this child who was subjected to rape and incest," said Theodora Bertzi, a Labor Ministry official and who was sitting on the committee. The committee will give its full ruling Friday.

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

Abortions can be carried out later than 14 weeks in Romania but only to save the life of the mother.

In Britain an abortion is legal up to 24 weeks if two doctors decide that the risk to a woman's physical or mental health will be greater if she continues with the pregnancy than if she ends it.

The case has bitterly split the medical community, children's rights groups and the public.

In a statement, the church groups offered "material, spiritual and psychological help" to the child'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 percent 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 National Child Protection Authority has said the girl should be allowed to have an abortion because she is already traumatized by the experience of rape and pregnancy.

The National Doctors Council, however, said that the rights of the fetus should be considered and the pregnancy should go ahead. They argued that abortion laws should not be liberalized further.

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