Aborts the 11-year-old girl who was raped in Bolivia and whose marriage sparked a debate on the termination of pregnancy

The Ombudsman’s Office of Bolivia confirmed Monday that the 11-year-old girl who was pregnant after being abused for months by her grandmother terminated her pregnancy.

“The minor has assumed a definition, together with the mother, within the framework of safeguarding her right to life and her right to integrity,” Nadia Cruz said at a press conference on Monday about the case that unleashed a national controversy in which the Catholic Church has been one of the protagonists.

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“The minor has the right to confidentiality, she has the right to continue with her life, after everything the church has broken into and the permissiveness of public institutions“, he claimed.

For more than nine months, the girl was the victim of sexual abuse by the father of her mother’s current partner.

The pregnancy was discovered when the girl told her family that she felt “strange movements” in her belly. The medical examination determined that at that time the girl was 21 weeks gestation.

Opponents of abortion have demonstrated in cities like Santa Cruz and La Paz. (EPA)

An aunt of the minor filed a complaint against the alleged aggressor, detained in a maximum security prison, while a request for Legal Interruption of Pregnancy (ILE) was presented for the girl.

When the case was made public, which took place in Yapacaní, department of Santa Cruz, in eastern Bolivia, a heated public debate was generated between pro-life groups of the country and the Catholic Church and the entities for the protection of minors that argued the constitutional right of the girl to abort.

Is abortion legal in Bolivia?

In Bolivia, a 2014 constitutional ruling determined that a woman can access a legal and safe abortion in cases in which the pregnancy is the product of rape, incest, rape (when the victim is a minor) or if, as a result of the pregnancy, his life or health is in danger.

It is only necessary to file a complaint of rape and the consent of the victim, eliminating the requirement of a judicial authorization that appears in the Bolivian Penal Code for the performance of a non-punishable abortion.

However, as the Ombudsman Cruz told BBC Mundo when the controversy over the case broke out a couple of weeks ago, its media coverage and pressure from anti-abortion groups made the girl and her mother desist from continuing with termination of pregnancy.

(EPA)

This is how the girl was discharged from the hospital where she was and moved to a reception center of the Catholic Church, an institution that promised to take care of the minor and her unborn.

However, Cruz explained to the media that the Court of Guarantees ordered the safeguarding of the girl’s rights and the formation of a technical team to ensure her physical and mental health.

“We can point out that the multidisciplinary technical-scientific team has assumed the protection of the minor. On Saturday afternoon, the girl was in good health. Psychologically, she must still be accompanied, ”she stated.

“The decision they made should not be public because it affects the future of the minor and all the trials that have existed around the girl,” Cruz emphasized.

Criminal proceedings against the Catholic Church

On October 27, the Ombudsman’s Office announced that its office had filed multiple criminal complaints against those who exerted undue pressure against the girl’s decision.

“We are filing a criminal complaint against the ombudsmen for children and adolescents of Yapacaní and Santa Cruz, the medical and nursing staff of the Percy Boland Hospital, the NGO and the Archdiocese of Santa Cruz that have intervened, and also against the mother, for the crimes, where appropriate, of breach of duties, disobedience to constitutional resolutions and human trafficking, ”Cruz said at the time.

And he assured that with this action they wanted those responsible to be punished with penalties of between 15 and 20 years in prison, “because the victim is a minor.”

On Monday, Cruz said that the Court of Guarantees has asked the Departmental Prosecutor’s Office to report every 5 days “on the progress and investigation of the illegal acts of interference by the Catholic Church.”

The official said that “after the first definition that the minor takes to interrupt the pregnancy there was a medical board” that was not requested by anyone and in which the Church inexplicably participated.

(GETTY IMAGES)

“Yes, there has been pressure from the church and pressure from such groups.”

“This meeting would have defined, without consulting either the mother or the minor, the suspension of that intervention, even having put for such suspension a drug that was putting the life of the minor at imminent risk,” said Cruz in the Press conference..

He also said that the Prosecutor’s Office already has the evidence presented by the Ombudsman’s Office of the illegal interference in this case.

According to data from the House of Women published by the EFE news agency, in 2020 there were 39,999 pregnancies of children under 18 years of age in Bolivia, which means that 104 girls get pregnant per day in the country, of which 6 are minors. 13 years old.

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