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The 11-year-old girl was sexually abused for months by her grandmother and became pregnant. For days, she was in a shelter of the Catholic Church, an institution that had pressured the minor not to interrupt the pregnancy. The Ombudsman’s Office confirmed that the girl was no longer pregnant, but did not specify whether it is due to a legal interruption of the pregnancy.
The news has delighted human rights defenders. A girl who suffered repeated sexual abuse by a 61-year-old man, resulting in a pregnancy, is no longer pregnant. It is still unknown by means of an official confirmation if the minor was subjected to a legal interruption of the pregnancy or not.
The Ombudsman’s Office simply limited itself to informing on Saturday that the minor’s rights were “protected” and that, for the moment, the case is being handled in absolute “confidentiality.”
“At least, until Monday we are not going to give any information. The only thing I can tell you is that a protection was generated regarding the rights of the girl ”, this was the statement of the Ombudsman, Nadia Cruz, after it became known that the girl was no longer pregnant.
The autopsy report of the fetus that France 24 was able to consult reports that a legal interruption of the pregnancy was carried out on Saturday at 14:10 (local time) in the city of Santa Cruz, in the morgue of the San Juan de Dios Hospital. The document delivered by police sources to France 24 indicates that the autopsy was carried out in the presence of the forensic doctor, two prosecutors and the investigator of the case.
The same sources told France 24 that the girl was discharged and is in a reception center.
Complaints from the Ombudsman’s Office
Last Monday, Nadia Cruz had denounced that the pregnant girl lacked medical care and filed an accusation against the Church and against officials of the municipal ombudsmen for children and adolescents of Yapacaní, in Santa Cruz, where the minor was found.
“We have verified that she is in a kind of institute to train adolescent mothers and that she does not have specialized health services,” Cruz had pointed out at a press conference.
Subsequently, the Departmental Court of Justice of La Paz granted the Ombudsman guardianship over the minor for her medical evaluation.
The Ministry of Health then constituted a team of ten specialists composed among others of psychologists, gynecologists, psychiatrists, to carry out an assessment of the health of the girl with five months of pregnancy.
A case that shook the whole country
The case of the 11-year-old girl became known at the end of October and caused a stir and a new debate in Bolivia about the right to abortion and sexual and reproductive rights, but more specifically about the responsibility of the State in the protection of girls. and teenagers.
At first, the girl wanted to resort to the legal interruption of the pregnancy and it was also known that her mother had consented to it.
However, some media reported the fact that the abortion was going to occur, which alerted the Catholic Church and led the mother to finally change her mind after being contacted by an organization of the religious institution.
Thus, the minor was taken to the Catholic reception center for girls in similar situations.
The Church had indicated in a statement that “the only solution is to save, care for and lovingly support both lives” and offered “welcome and care for the girl and the little creature in her womb.”
Bolivian law establishes that pregnancy can, even without judicial authorization, be interrupted when it is the result of rape or the product of an incestuous relationship, and also when the life of the pregnant person is at risk.
But the anti-abortion groups relied on the fact that the girl had a gestation time of more than 13 weeks, considered as a reference to practice legal abortions. However, from a legal point of view, the length of pregnancy is irrelevant.
Forced pregnancy: torture and a violation of the most basic human rights, international organizations recall
The girl who lived in the municipality of Yapacaní, in the eastern region of Santa Cruz, was raped for a period of 10 months by her grandmother, who is now in prison, while her parents had to travel to the capital for work reasons. .
The case reached the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which urged Bolivia to protect girl victims of rape and forced pregnancies.
For its part, UN Bolivia pointed out that imposing a forced pregnancy on a girl is “classified as torture” and urged the authorities to intensify efforts to protect the rights of abused girls.
According to data from the House of Women, in 2020 there were 39,999 pregnancies under 18 years old, which means that 104 girls get pregnant every day in the South American country.
With EFE and local media
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