Mexican rape victim, 13, refused access to abortion

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Health officials in northern Mexico have refused to authorize an abortion for a 13-year-old girl who was raped by a family acquaintance after a judge downgraded the crime to a charge of sexual coercion.

Abortion is banned in Sonora, apart from in cases of rape. But human rights advocates say the decision violates federal health regulations introduced earlier this year which guarantee rape victims unrestricted access to safe abortion services – regardless of where they live and whether the crime was reported or not.

The new regulation should supersede state restrictions, but it has left health providers uncertain about who to obey, according to Alex Ali, a lawyer for the Group for Information on Reproductive Choice (Gire) which is representing the victim. “The new regulation requires health services to provide abortions for any woman or girl who says she has been raped, without any other requirements. This has been enough to convince authorities in other states with the same criminal code, so why not in Sonora? It’s down to political will,” he told the Guardian.

Mexico has the highest reported incidence of sexual abuse, violence and murder against children under 14 among the OECD countries. One in four girls is sexually assaulted before the age of 18, according to the latest survey by the Executive Commission of Attention to Victims (CEAV). In 2008 Mexico City became the first place in the country to allow women in their first trimester unobstructed access to abortion services. In response, Sonora was one of 16 states to immediately tighten restrictions on terminations.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/01/mexican-victim-13-refused-access-to-abortion

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Nina Lakhani in Mexico City
Monday 1 August 2016 23.55 BST

[63splitwindow]

1. Important issues for Mexico to address but I see this thread going nowhere good.

And No, I will not elaborate further.

[mercuryblues]

2. this is

sickening.

[secondwind]

3. abhorrent

[smirkymonkey]

4. Evil!

They are violating this child a second time. Just sick!

[Judi Lynn]

7. You bet. Forcing motherhood upon her is a total, sadistic crime against her.

Giving birth to the spawn of a pervert is the most grotesque thing which could happen to a child.

[mrmpa]

5. She needs to get to California, somehow......eom

[tawadi]

6. "Since May 2015, Gire has represented 14 rape victims who were denied access to a safe abortion,

including a 10-year-old girl.."

[niyad]

8. that judge should be investigated. would bet there are more than a few skeletons in THAT closet

[Coventina]

9. Gee, and here I was REASSURED that abortion rights are better in Mexico than here...

By another DUer....

[a la izquierda]

12. Well I'd love to see that post. nt

[Coventina]

13. It was some time ago. If I can find it, I'll PM you....

[a la izquierda]

15. Thanks...

Odd indeed.

[msanthrope]

10. Porta-wombs. That's all women are, to some governments. nt

[Quantess]

11. Well that's not a very nice thing to say about Mexico.

(I get that we knee-jerk liberals are supposed to respond in this way.)

[Xithras]

14. In Sonora, as in much of Mexico, the legal concept of "statutory rape" doesn't exist.

The federal age of consent in Mexico is 12, though some states have raised it a bit higher. Most Mexican states place additional restrictions on sex with children below the age of 16-18, but this isn't an "age of consent" as we think of it in the United States. Adults who take advantage of 12-14 year old girls can be charged with Corruption of Minors. It's a serious crime, but it's not considered rape...or even a sex crime. Even more disturbingly, charges can only be brought if the girl or her parents file a complaint.

The wife of a very good friend grew up in Jalisco where she was regularly raped by her mothers boyfriend. It was reported to law enforcement several times, but was ignored because the mother wouldn't file a complaint, the father was an American living in California and couldn't file locally, and the mother told the police that she was a "willing participant" and just reported it because she was a moody teenager and wanted to get the boyfriend in trouble. Eventually, her father was able to work with the embassy to get her into the United States (she was a full citizen, but she was born in Mexico and had never been to the United States and had no passport, so getting her out of the country as a minor was a tricky legal situation).

I love Mexico as a country, but their sexual assault laws are horrific.

[a la izquierda]

16. The laws down there are pretty archaic nowadays.

What's totally odd: I'm working on a project examining women and the law at the beginning of the 20th century. There were lots of rape cases brought to the authorities then. I'm still not sure what the outcomes were for some. Women also sought divorces back then to0.