Raped repeatedly by stepfather

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) -- A 10-year-old girl raped repeatedly by her stepfather has undergone an abortion in Brazil, after authorities decided her case warranted the procedure otherwise prohibited in this Latin American nation.

Doctors in the northeastern city of Recife put an end to the girl's four-month pregnancy on Saturday, the news website G1 reported.

The child had been taken to the hospital on Wednesday suffering abdominal pains. Staff discovered she was pregnant after she had sexual relations with her stepfather, said the chief police investigator in the case, Mariana Vilas Boas.

The girl was released on Sunday and told to rest for some time "to avoid hemorrhaging", the head of the medical centre that carried out the procedure, Fatima Maia, told the Diario de Pernambuco newspaper.

The 44-year-old stepfather was arrested for rape and confessed that he had forced himself on the girl since 2008, G1 reported.

Abortions are outlawed in Brazil -- the largest Catholic country in the world -- except with legal authorisation in the cases of sexual violence, a mother's poor health or deformation of the fetus.