In Paraguay, Unicef is sounding the alarm and wants to alert the public to the sexual abuse of which many young girls are victims. One of them, aged 10 and raped by her stepfather, has just discovered that she is 23 weeks pregnant. However, in Paraguay, a small South American country located between Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, the legal deadline for abortion is 20 weeks, and only if there is danger to the life of the mother.
Questioned on this subject, the Paraguayan Minister of Health, also a pediatrician, remained inflexible: no question of granting the right to abortion beyond 20 weeks. The girl will therefore have to carry her pregnancy to term. The dean of the Paraguayan medical school, Anibal Peris, in turn said that this was not the first case of early pregnancy, and that all previous cases were concluded without any complications. We’ll just give the little girl to give birth by cesarean section to avoid any complications.
To prevent the girl, who will turn 11 in a few days, from being forced to carry her pregnancy to term, a campaign has been launched by the local branch of Amnesty International under the keyword # NiñaEnPeligro. Amnesty International points out that “on April 28, the girl’s mother lodged a request with the hospital for her daughter to have an abortion. And according to the latest information, the wishes of the mother and daughter are being ignored.”
The non-governmental organization considers this case to be a case of “torture or ill-treatment” as defined by the UN Convention against Torture. “A 10 year old child needs our help. Please warn the world and help save her life,” Amnesty International tweeted in English on May 1.
