NYT/Reuters: Rape Victim Abortion Case Polarizes Argentina

[DeepModem Mom]

Rape Victim Abortion Case Polarizes Argentina
By REUTERS
Published: July 28, 2006

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - An abortion case involving a mentally disabled rape victim has polarized Argentina, setting the government against courts in a Roman Catholic nation where terminating pregnancy is mostly illegal.

A top provincial court will decide within a few days whether to allow a mentally impaired 19 year old, four months pregnant, to have an abortion. Both Argentina's health minister and its most powerful governor back her family's plea.

Argentine law bans abortions except when a woman's life is in danger or a "demented'' woman is raped.

Two lower tribunals have denied the request, arguing in part the constitutional mandate to protect children's rights trumps criminal law. One judge also cited the influence of her own religious convictions, according to local media....

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Buenos Aires Gov. Felipe Sola was quoted by Clarin newspaper as saying: "We are not in a theocracy. It is within this disabled rape victim's rights to abort.''

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-argentina-abortion.html