Bolivian government denounces those who prevented a raped 11-year-old girl from aborting

The government of Bolivia reported this Friday that he filed a complaint to request the “protection of the rights” of an 11-year-old girl abused by her grandmother and sanctions against those who interfered in the interruption of her pregnancy.

At a press conference in La Paz, the Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, explained that the appeal was presented before a court in Santa Cruz and that “It has been requested that it be sanctioned” to the officials and people who “By actions and omissions they have violated human rights and comprehensive protection in accordance with the best interests of the child victim.”

This request also extends to “Third parties” outside the minor’s family nucleus, such as non-governmental and religious organizations that have had contact with the minor and her mother to make them give up the interruption of the pregnancy and continue their gestation.

The girl, who exceeded 22 weeks of gestation, was abused by her 61-year-old grandfather who was in her charge since her parents had to travel permanently due to work factors in the town of Yapacaní. The aggressor is in custody.

The case came to light when the minor was admitted last week to the Percy Boland Hospital in Santa Cruz, in the midst of a great controversy, to later be transferred to a reception center of the Catholic Church.

Prada regretted that third parties have entered the medical center “to make a kind of reflection on the girl with a highly religious content, giving her rosaries, giving her virgins, giving explanations that of course do not correspond”, when the intervention of her pregnancy should proceed.

The Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office announced this Friday that another complaint filed by the country’s Ombudsman’s Office against the church, hospital officials and the municipal ombudsmen for children and adolescents of Yapacaní and Santa Cruz has been admitted.

This process seeks to identify those who are accused of crimes such as breach of duties and disobedience to constitutional resolutions as well as trafficking in persons for the purpose of custody and adoption, according to a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office.

In Bolivia, abortion is considered a crime but according to the laws it has exceptions when there was a sexual assault, there is a congenital malformation or the life of the mother is in danger.

The church expressed its “strongest condemnation of the brutal rape” suffered by the girl, but insisted that “both are independent human lives” and that “one crime is not solved with another crime.”

Meanwhile, several feminist groups have demonstrated against those who advocated not to interrupt the pregnancy of the minor by adhering to the complaint filed by the Ombudsman’s Office.

Likewise, the United Nations System in Bolivia considered that subjecting a girl to a forced pregnancy “is classified as torture.”

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