In 2009, a 9-year-old girl was forcibly impregnated by her stepfather; the girl's mother helped her procure an abortion. The twin pregnancy was terminated. Archbishop José Sobrinho affirmed that the girl's mother and the doctors who performed the abortion had been automatically excommunicated under Canon Law. This prompted an array of national and international criticism for the Archbishop's actions. In response, the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil declared that no one was excommunicated in the case, and in an article published on L'Osservatore Romano a Vatican bioethicist rebuked the archbishop for his public statement.