A while ago a ten-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped by her stepfather, was denied an abortion in Asunción, Paraguay. The child’s pregnancy was discovered at 21 weeks, when she was taken to hospital suffering from a stomach ache. Her mother demanded an abortion for her child, but the authorities refused because the procedure is illegal in Paraguay unless the pregnancy can be shown to be life-threatening. Critics have said that forcing the girl to continue with an unwanted pregnancy is “tantamount to torture”, and that Paraguay’s “restrictive” abortion laws violate international law. The girl’s stepfather went on the run, while her mother was thrown into jail on suspicion of failing in her duty of care. (The Week)

What sort of religion countenances such inhumanity? “Sanctity of life at any cost” is still the teaching of the more extreme parts of the Catholic church. The Pope is trying to humanize the doctrine and blur the edges, but history tells us that there is always a conservative reaction to reform. I’m sure Epicurus, faced with this incident, would be compassionate and use common sense. Probably, the same could be said of Jesus. Where were the priests and bishops? Praying, on supposes. Meanwhile, the ten-year-old lost her childhood and is faced with bringing up a child – at ten years old. For those who are outraged at events like this, simply espouse the rational, kind and humane ideas of Epicurus, who believed in love and charity, without forcing his ideas on the people through legislatures.