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Catholic World News News Feature

Abusive stepfather protected in landmark Nicaraguan abortion case August 17, 2007

Abortion proponents in Nicaragua evidently helped a man escape punishment for sexually abusing his stepdaughter, the LifeSiteNews service reports

Known to the world only as "Rosita," a 9-year-old Nicaraguan child impregnated by a rapist several years ago became the international poster girl for the pro-abortion movement.

Since 2003 her "hard case" pregnancy has been used to promote the cause of "therapeutic abortion" in Nicaragua and worldwide, inspiring numerous articles, petition drives, and even a documentary featured on the cable TV channel Cinemax.

Now media sources in Nicaragua have uncovered the fact that "Rosita" has a living child (different from the unborn child that was ultimately aborted in the high-profile 2003 case) by her own stepfather, the very man whom pro-abortion feminists helped to escape Costa Rica during a criminal investigation of the original rape. The scandal has made headlines across Nicaragua, and government authorities are attempting to find the stepfather, Fletez Sanchez, who is now in hiding.

As documented in earlier LifeSiteNews.com coverage, Sanchez had been suspected by investigators from the beginning of the case in 2003, when Rosita's pregnancy was accidentally discovered in Costa Rica by medical authorities who were treating the girl for a vaginal infection. The family attempted at that time to blame a Costa Rican man, who denied the charges.

When pro-abortion feminists from the Network of Women Against Violence discovered the girl's situation, they helped Sánchez and his wife to smuggle Rosita out of Costa Rica and back to Nicaragua, where they used the case as part of their campaign to promote "therapeutic abortion" in Latin America, claiming that the procedure was necessary to protect the health of the girl. In the absence of the stepfather, Costa Rican authorities were unable to obtain the DNA tests necessary to prove the true identity of the rapist.

Ultimately the feminist group secured an abortion at an unnamed site in Nicaragua after obtaining signed approval from three handpicked doctors. Rosita's extreme case was trumpeted by the pro-abortion movement worldwide as a heroic rescue of a victimized child, and an example of the need to make abortion more available to women in Latin America. The family was protected from government questioning by the Network, and after the abortion they were given a house to live in by the organization. Attempts by Costa Rica to further the criminal investigation against Sanchez were also thwarted by the protection of the organization and the failure of Nicaraguan authorities to pursue the case.

However, the revelation that Rosita has a child, now 18 months old, fathered by her stepfather, has all but eliminated doubt about the identity of Rosita's rapist in 2003. Sanchez, who is in hiding, has admitted in telephone interviews that he has had an ongoing sexual relationship with his stepdaughter, and claims that his wife has known all along. He also claims that Rosita is several years older than previously believed, a claim also made by neighbors of the family. Should that be the case it would further erode the health concerns cited by doctors in 2003 to justify Rosita's abortion.