CENTRAL NEWS
A ten-year-old who became pregnant after being raped by her uncle had her pregnancy terminated on 17th of August, in Pernambuco, after judicial authorization. The child had been raped continuously by her uncle for the past four years, but had not reported the ongoing violence to authorities after being threatened.
The man was arrested on 18t August in Betim. After being arrested, he “informally” confessed the crime to the police.
After a court decision that authorized the abortion, the child was admitted to the Cassiano Antonio Moraes University Hospital (Hucam), in Vitória, but the medical team of the Program for Assistance to Victims of Sexual Violence (Pavivi) refused to perform the procedure.
The child was later admitted to the Recife Hospital in Pernambuco where anti-abortion groups tried to prevent the director of the hospital from entering the unit to perform the abortion.
The director of the maternity hospital was only able to perform the procdure after callin the police.
Child-mothers
The Brazilian Ministry of Human Rights, attempting to make some window-dressing changes to abortion laws, has pushed for women to be able to opt for abortions in rape cases where pregnancies carry high-risk.
Professionals are also legally obliged to ask if a pregnant woman wants to see ultrasound images of the fetus in legally approved abortion cases. The law comes as another attempt to emotionally manipulate women to change her decision regarding the abortion.
Rape culture
Brazil registers 6 abortions per day in girls between 10 -14 year olds who were raped. Every hour, four girls up to the age of 13 are raped in the country, according to the Brazilian Yearbook of Public Security 2019. Since 2008, almost 32 thousand abortions involving girls of this age group have been recorded.
According to the data on 20 thousand hospitalizations which recorded data on race or skin color: 13.2 thousand brown girls (66%) and 5.6 thousand white girls (28%) had abortions. The data included abortions performed for medical, spontaneous and other reasons.
