11-Year-Old Girl Gets Pregnant From Rape, Family Decides To Keep The Baby

An 11-year-old child, who got pregnant after being raped by a 61-year-old man will keep the baby after her family decided not to subject her to an abortion. The decision has sparked a widespread protest in Bolivia, where the incident happened, for the church's alleged interference in the matter.

The girl became pregnant after allegedly being raped by her step-grandfather, who is now in jail for the crime. According to reports, the girl and her siblings were living with the accused because her parents were working. The incident happened in the town of Yapacani, in Bolivia’s eastern Santa Cruz region, reported Yahoo News Australia.

The family lawyer Giovanni Cabello informed local media that the decision was made by the child's family. "This was a decision (to continue the pregnancy) expressed in the morning and it is inserted in the medical history so that the maternity ward and all its team are proceeding according to the will expressed by the family," he said.

Doctors and the judicial authorities had suggested that the pregnancy be terminated. However, the incident has triggered widespread protest in Bolivia, after human rights activists alleged that the Catholic Church intervened and persuaded the girl's mother to cancel the initial plan for abortion.

"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," Ana Paola García, the executive director of La Casa de la Mujer, a Bolivian women’s rights NGO, was quoted by The Guardian.

After the alleged rape and pregnancy came to light, the girl was moved to a hospital in the city of Santa Cruz. The country's law dictates that as an underage rape victim, she was due to have the pregnancy legally terminated on Oct. 29.

"But the child’s mother, accompanied by a woman claiming to be a lawyer for the church, intervened, saying the girl had changed her mind," García said. She alleged that the church and her parents were violating her human rights by obliging her to continue with a pregnancy which puts her life at risk.

The Bolivian government also criticized the Catholic Church for interfering in the girl's abortion.

The 11-year-old girl was determined to be 21 weeks pregnant after an ultrasound was performed. She has been moved to a center for unwed mothers.