An archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church says terminating a pregnancy resulting from rape “a graver act” than the sexual abuse a girl suffered for over three years by her step father in Brazil.

Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Dom Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, has excommunicated the nine year old’s mother, the doctor and the whole medical team involved in the procedure with the support of the Vatican.

Catholic Church law says minors are exempt from excommunication.

The archbishop did not excommunicate the stepfather who has admitted to sexually abusing the young girl and her fourteen year old sister for the past three years.

The young girls pregnancy was discovered at the health unit where she was taken by her mother after complaining of stomach pain. It was there that the doctor discovered she was 15 weeks pregnant with twins. The girl then confessed to her mother that her stepfather had been raping her and her older sister since the young girl was six years old.

There is a possibility the stepfather may remain in jail until the investigation.

Brazilian law currently bans abortion except in the case of rape and up to the twentieth week (as long as there is no risk of death for the mother).