Outcry in Romania over abortion for raped 11-year-old girl

Sunday Times Foreign Desk Published:Jun 29, 2008
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Romania divided after the government grants termination on special grounds

Romania is heatedly debating the emotive issue of underaged girls being allowed abortions after it was revealed that an 11-year-old Romanian girl intended to fly to Britain to terminate her 21-week pregnancy.

Florina Vranceanu’s tragic circumstances have generated a furore in her homeland since her pregnancy became known earlier this month.

The Romanian authorities initially refused to allow Florina to have a termination because her pregnancy was too far advanced. The legal limit for abortions in Romania is 14 weeks unless the mother’s health is threatened. But they relented on Friday after an outcry in Romania and abroad.

Florina fell pregnant after being raped twice by a 19-year-old uncle in their village of Piatra Soimului in eastern Romania, according to UK tabloid the Daily Mail.

Florina’s parents only found out she was pregnant on June 2 after her 26-year-old mother, Lacramioara, took her to the doctor when she complained of stomach pains. The stunned parents decided on termination, but were informed their daughter’s pregnancy was too far gone.

“Panel after panel, meeting after meeting. In the meantime, my poor girl gets more and more terrified,” said Lacramioara.

A family friend said: “She was just a child herself and one who had been raped and betrayed by one of her own family. How could anyone expect her to go through with the pregnancy and have the baby?”

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

Romania’s National Child Protection Authority argued Florina should be allowed to have an abortion because she was already traumatised by the experience of rape and pregnancy.

But the National Doctors’ Council said the rights of the foetus should be considered and the pregnancy should go ahead. Twenty church groups also opposed an abortion, according to the Daily Mail.

But the publicity had one positive outcome — a Romanian woman living in Britain offered to fly the girl and her parents to the UK and arrange for the termination at a clinic. Abortion is legal up to six months (24 weeks) in the UK, although the issue is being fiercely debated at the moment. There is growing public pressure for the limit to be lowered to 20 or 22 weeks.

Florina’s relieved parents decided to take up the good Samaritan’s offer and fly to the UK. But the publicity caused the Romanian government to backtrack and announce on Friday that Florina can have an abortion in Romania on exceptional grounds. At a meeting, Romanian government committee member Vlad Iliescu read out an emotive letter from the girl.

It said: “I want to go to school and to play. If I can’t do this, my life will be a nightmare.” Iliescu said: “The girl’s mental health would be severely affected if she had a baby.”

Theodora Bertzi, a labour ministry official, said the decision was taken because “we are talking about ... the rights of this child who was subjected to rape and incest”.

Florina’s 33-year-old father, Florin, insisted he would take his daughter to the UK. “Whatever is decided here in Romania, it all takes too long. Even if they agree to a law change, it will all take too long and it’s putting my daughter’s life at risk in the meantime,” he said before the ruling.

“We will take up the UK offer and have arranged to fly out on Tuesday. The clinic is already arranged.”

Florin said his daughter had not told anyone about being raped because her uncle had threatened her.

“He told my daughter that we would beat her if we found out what had happened and that we would abandon her, so she kept quiet. We only found out four weeks ago after she complained of stomach pains.

“Her mother took her to the hospital and we discovered she was pregnant. I wanted to kill him but he has gone on the run — no one knows where he is.”

Florina’s ordeal may still not be over. The church groups who opposed her abortion are insisting that the Romanian government prevent Florina from travelling to Britain.

The pro-life Christian Orthodox groups also threatened to press charges if the girl was allowed to have a termination in Romania on exceptional grounds.

They have offered “material, spiritual and psychological help” to Florina’s impoverished family. They have also offered to raise the child in a church institution if the family is unable to care for it.

But the Romanian Orthodox Church, which is followed by more than 80% of the population, said the decision should be left to the family. Spokesman Constantin Stoica said it was “an exceptional situation which must be treated in an exceptional manner and the family is the only one to take this decision”.

Stoica said although the church considered abortion a crime, this belief applied to normal circumstances and not to incest or rape.

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