The case of an 11-year-old girl who was raped by a relative and became pregnant in Bolivia has sparked a heated debate over abortion. The newspaper The Guardian writes that the girl was abused by her stepfather’s 61-year-old father. She lived with her sisters with the man, because her parents stayed in the capital La Paz for work. The man is incarcerated for his crimes, the newspaper writes.
The girl would initially have wanted to have an abortion, until the Catholic Church in Bolivia got involved. Since 2014, Bolivia has allowed a pregnancy to be terminated by law if it is the result of rape or incest. Human rights groups say the church persuaded the girl and her mother to complete the pregnancy after all.
A church spokesman says they have a “social duty to safeguard the lives of both the baby and the mother”. Human rights groups, on the other hand, say that there is manipulation by the church and that the 11-year-old girl’s human rights are being violated.
‘Culture of rapes’
Nadia Cruz, a human rights ombudswoman in Bolivia, has announced criminal action against the Archdiocese of Santa Cruz, the girl’s mother and the medical staff of the Santa Cruz hospital where the girl initially stayed for breach of duty of care and human trafficking with a view to forced pregnancy.
Human rights organizations speak of a ‘culture of rape’ in the Latin American country. Data from NGO La Casa de la Mujer would show that almost 40,000 underage girls became pregnant in 2020. The average age at which they became pregnant is 15 years.
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