Raped girl (11) flees Romania for abortion in Britain

ROMANIA:AN 11-YEAR-OLD Romanian girl who has been at the centre of an abortion row after allegedly being raped by her uncle has flown to Britain for a termination, according to the mayor of her home village.

Florina Vranceanu's pregnancy was only discovered this month, when the foetus was already well past the 14-week Romanian limit for abortion on anything other than emergency medical grounds.

While women's rights groups supported her request for a termination, a medical panel found no clinical reason for the procedure, and religious and anti-abortion campaigners vehemently opposed moves to grant her special dispensation to have an abortion.

Amid fierce debate, a special government commission finally decided late last week that, because of her age and the allegations of rape against her 19-year-old uncle, Ms Vranceanu should be allowed to abort the 21-week-old foetus. By that point, her parents had accepted an offer from a Romanian businesswoman living in London to pay for the girl to fly to Britain and have an abortion in a private clinic.

"The girl and her mother left for Britain on Saturday evening," said Neculai Nicorescu, the mayor of the village in eastern Romanian where the Vranceanu family live.

"The girl and her parents were informed of the decision on Friday, but they nevertheless went ahead and signed the documents for the pregnancy termination to be carried out in Britain."

Ms Vranceanu's father suggested last week that the abortion would be carried out in Britain today, and said the government panel's finding in favour of their request for an abortion would not alter their decision, because they feared delays through legal challenges by anti-abortion groups.

Anti-abortion groups threatened legal action if Ms Vranceanu was given dispensation to have an abortion, and offered to care for the child if it was born. Romanian Orthodox Church leaders have refrained from their usual condemnation of abortion in this case, and asked that the family be allowed to decide what's best for the girl.

The Romanian Doctors' Council has said the panel's decision was only a recommendation, and did not give any Romanian doctor the right to break the existing law and perform an abortion on Ms Vranceanu, who doctors say is in good health, along with her baby.