Bolivia: Fate of 11-year-old girl raped by family member sparks abortion debate
Religious groups seek to force girl to give birth as intervention of the Catholic church questioned
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/oct/29/bolivia-11-year-old-girl-rape-catholic-church?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
The fate of an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a family member has unleashed a fierce debate between human rights activists and the Catholic church in Bolivia, as religious groups seek to force her to complete the pregnancy and give birth.
The girl was impregnated after being repeatedly raped and suffering other sexual abuse by the father of her stepfather in the town of Yapacaní, in Bolivia’s eastern Santa Cruz region.
The girl was living with her sisters and 61-year-old step-grandfather, who is now in jail for the crime, because her parents were in La Paz working.
The case has thrown into sharp relief the gaping holes in the state’s protection for women and girls in Bolivia, which has one of highest levels of inter-familiar sexual violence and abuse in Latin America, and what some activists call a culture of rape.
The intervention of the Catholic church is also being severely questioned, after religious groups contacted the mother of the victim and persuaded her to oppose the termination of the pregnancy, a move which has prompted legal action by the Bolivian human rights ombudsman’s office.
“The girl didn’t even know what it meant to be pregnant; she told her cousin that she felt something moving inside her tummy. Her cousin told her mother – the girl’s aunt – who reported it to the police,” said Ana Paola García, the executive director of La Casa de la Mujer, a Bolivian women’s rights NGO.
