WMC FBomb

The 11-year-old girl forced to give birth post-rape is not an exception in Argentina

Wmc Fbomb Ni Una Menos Rpp 32619

Recently, reports surfaced of an 11-year-old girl from a rural area in Argentina who got pregnant after being raped by her grandmother’s partner. The girl’s mother and relatives supported and advocated for the girl to have an abortion in her 16th week of pregnancy, but doctors disrespected their wishes and performed a C-section after 23 weeks in February.

While abortion is still illegal in many circumstances in Argentina, a 1921 law permits it in cases of rape or when the life of the woman is in danger. The girl, who is being referred to as “Lucia” to protect her identity, qualified for both conditions. Mariela Belski, Executive Director of Amnesty International Argentina, told the FBomb more about this case and how Argentinian girls and women are fighting for justice thanks to the Ni Una Menos (Not One [Woman] Less) movement.

The FBomb: Can you give us some context on sexual abuse and rape culture in Argentina? How common (or uncommon) is Lucia’s story?

Mariela Belski: Unfortunately, the case of “Lucia” is not an isolated one. Every three hours a girl under 15 gives birth in Argentina. The majority [of these pregnancies are] forced — the results of situations of abuse and coercion.

Early pregnancy causes high rates of delaying and dropping out of school, which negatively affects girls’ life trajectories. It also brings risks to the health of girls and adolescents. Girls under 15 years of age are four times more at risk of death in pregnancy and at a higher risk of preterm delivery (before 27 weeks of gestation), perinatal mortality, eclampsia (convulsions),  postpartum hemorrhage, and increased risk of endometrial infection. Doctors and health professionals know this.

The situation is so serious that in 2017, the national Government launched the National Plan for the Prevention and Reduction of Unintentional Pregnancy in Adolescents to address the problem of unintentional pregnancy in adolescence in an inter-sectoral manner. It aims to “strengthen the policies for the prevention of the abuse, the sexual violence and the access to the legal interruption of the pregnancy."

So far this year, cases of forced child pregnancies in the provinces of Chaco, Jujuy, Tucumán, and Misiones have gone public. The systematic inaction of the national state reveals a disregard of women’s bodies and intention to discipline them. It also shows the lack of effective public policies that guarantee girls’ and adolescents’ rights to health, in breach of international human rights obligations. They also ignore the observations of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child that in May 2018 urged Argentina to ensure that access to safe abortion and post-abortion services for girls and adolescents is guaranteed.

The doctors to whom the young girl, her mother, and numerous Argentinian women’s rights activists pled for an abortion refused it even though abortion is legal in the country in cases of rape or when the woman’s life is at risk. Do you have any insight as to why the doctors still refused to give the girl an abortion? Is it common for doctors to ignore this law?

As individuals, health care providers have the right to have their own beliefs and to live according to them. But they cannot impose their own convictions or gender stereotypes on women or girls at the expense of their human rights to health, physical integrity, autonomy, privacy, and life. Doing so constitutes a serious form of violence and a breach of the State's human rights obligations. In fact, unsafe abortions have been the leading cause of maternal mortality in Argentina since 1980, especially among the poorest women [who seek them].

In Argentina, the right to “conscientious objection” to the provision of health services implies that health professionals can refuse to provide certain services because they consider them contrary to their personal convictions. However, given that such refusal can potentially imply the restriction or nullification of the enjoyment of women's human rights, the exercise of the right to this objection of conscience is subject to certain limits. The nation’s Supreme Court of Justice recognized in a past case the right of health personnel to conscientious objection but stressed that its exercise cannot become an obstacle and that health facilities must have a staff to permanently guarantee access to benefits. 

Unfortunately, women and girls have often been denounced by health professionals in breach of the duty of professional secrecy-confidentiality and their rights obstructed when they deny their right to access legal abortion.

Pope Francis has said in the past that having an abortion is like hiring a hitman. How does his perspective on abortion, and the Catholic church's point of view on abortion at large, impact the view of abortion in Argentinian culture at large?

Pope Francis retains significant influence in his home country, and he has compared abortion to eugenics carried out in Nazi concentration camps. Senior Church figures have engaged in an anti-abortion campaign involving some highly questionable actions and strategies, like disseminating incorrect information. When senators were debating the current abortion legislation, which has been in force since 1921 and permits abortion only if there is a risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman, or in cases of rape, the Church pressured them; the Catholic Church in Buenos Aires held a "mass for life."

After a 2018 debate during which the Senate rejected a bill to legalize abortion, conservative groups have come together to oppose other initiatives around decriminalizing and legalizing abortion. For example, the alliance between the Catholic and the Evangelical Churches has been solidified, which was not formerly the case in Argentina or other regions and countries in Latin America. These groups have become more organized in their efforts to reverse recent minimum agreements, including access to legal abortion and the implementation of the comprehensive sex education (CSE).    

Interestingly, in a survey conducted by Amnesty International, more than 63 percent of Argentinians want the Church to stay out of the [abortion] debate. The percentage of respondents holding this view rises to over 70 percent in key districts such as the City of Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires Province, two of the most important pro-government strongholds. It is striking that in both these administrative areas, the head of government and the governor expressly came out against the law.

 

Argentina is in the midst of a grassroots, fourth-wave feminist movement called “Ni Una Menos” (“Not one [woman] less”). How has that movement mobilized around this specific case, as well as the general struggle for abortion rights and against rape culture?

The movement is always alert and ready to continue reacting to these [types of] cases and to support women and girls, as well as doctors and health care providers who are exposed to criminal charges when they perform abortions, even when they are complying with the law.

The “women in green” [abortion rights protestors] know that legalizing abortion is actually about protecting lives, about stopping all the preventable deaths that result from anti-abortion laws. They know that supporting abortion is often about policing women’s bodies and ensuring that they enjoy fewer freedoms than men.

One of the most interesting aspects of this process has been how the youth have embraced abortion as their own. They have become a prominent force fighting for the expansion of their rights and have mobilized around this cause.

The debate over abortion during 2018 has also led to other causes. It reveals the need to push a normative framework guaranteeing a secular state so that the church decreases its influence in public debates and in people’s private issues, such as the decisions involving one's own body and education, among others. The debate has also led to the question of how to implement comprehensive sexual education, a fundamental right that, among other things, has been proven to help children identify sexual abuses.

In an election year, abortion is an item on the agenda that no candidate running for any elective position may refrain from responding.



More articles by Category: Feminism, International
More articles by Tag: Americas, Reproductive rights, Law, South & Central America, Sexualized violence, Women of color
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