COCHABAMBA, Bolivia, Mar 16 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A twelve-year-old girl in Bolivia was ordered by a judge to submit to an abortion until doctors opposed the procedure as dangerous to the girl’s health and objected to ending the life of the unborn child. The child was apparently raped by her stepfather and is now close to five months pregnant. Judge Juan Luis Ledezma of Cochabamba had given approval to the abortion and had appointed a panel of doctors to submit a report to him with the name of the doctor who would perform the abortion as well as the time and place of the abortion procedure. After analyzing the doctors’ report, Judge Ledezma agreed to suspend the abortion for thirty days.
The ruling was praised by pro-abortion feminists but received quick condemnation from churches and the Medical Association of Bolivia which said that its members would go on strike for twenty-four hours in protest of the pressure levied on the doctors to perform the abortion. The Catholic Church in Cochabamba offered help to care for the baby and prepared for a legal battle for the life of the unborn child. Miguel Manzanera, legal advisor to the archdiocese, explained that within a month, the minor would be in her sixth month of pregnancy. At that time, a Caesarean operation could be performed which would save both lives, in case the minor did not want to carry the child to the full term of her pregnancy.
(with files from Human Life International)