The Latest in Excommunication

I was hoping for a lighter subject for my 100th post…but I saw this story and just couldn’t keep it to myself.

A nine-year-old and her family…and a few doctors…were recently excommunicated from their Catholic church in Brazil. The little girl was at the center of the issue. Turns out, she had an abortion. 

Think about that for a minute.

For a nine year old girl to have an abortion, that means she would have to have been pregnant. 

That means, as affirmed by the story, she was not pregnant by choice. In fact, she was pregnant with twins. Thanks to her stepfather who raped her.

Some local doctors performed the abortion that, according to Brazilian law, was a legal procedure: “Abortion is illegal in Brazil except in cases of rape or when the mother’s life is in danger, both of which apply in this case. (The girl’s immature hips would have made labor dangerous; the Catholic opinion was that she could have had a cesarean section.)” 

The Catholic opinion was extended to this: “God’s laws,” said the archbishop, dictate that abortion is a sin and that transgressors are no longer welcome in the Roman Catholic Church. “They took the life of an innocent,” Sobrinho told TIME in a telephone interview. “Abortion is much more serious than killing an adult. An adult may or may not be an innocent, but an unborn child is most definitely innocent. Taking that life cannot be ignored.”

Can we talk for a minute about the other innocent life that was taken? Until this horrific act by her stepfather, she was an innocent life herself. She is innocent no more, and will have a long road of healing from that alone–to say nothing of the healing from the church and her family situation. This little girl also lost her innocent life. Just as the Catholics are unwilling to ignore the taking of innocent life when it applies to a fetus, I am unwilling to ignore the taking of THIS girl’s innocent life. To me, THAT is the bigger issue.

Once again, though, the church misses the boat and finds a way to bar the door from someone who needs the Jesus inside more than ever. Thank God Jesus is not found solely in the building we call church. My hope is that the people we call church will offer their support, regardless of the Catholic opinion. Otherwise, there is no justice and no peace for this innocent life.

Pro-Life = Pro-Baby

I started a post on abortion a couple of months ago…and didn’t finish it. But there are a few things I would like to say about the subject.

If you are pro-life, not only are you against abortion, you are also AGAINST capital punishment, nuclear proliferation, war, allowing government systems to continue to allow starvation, rape of the earth and her resources.

If you are pro-life, you are FOR providing resources for pre- and post-natal care for young, un-wed mothers, for providing parent education, for providing emotional support for young single mothers. You will work for having diapers included in WIC approved items ( you know, Women, INFANT, & Children, WIC?). You will work for better nutritional foods to be included in WIC approved items. You are for job training and life-skills training. 

If you are anti-abortion but are not concerned about all of life on this earth, chances are, you are pro-baby. And pro-baby is good. It’s just not enough in my mind.