over the treatment of a pregnant 10-year-old in Paraguay. The pregnancy
was discovered when the girl’s mother sought medical care after the
girl complained of abdominal pain. Authorities allege that the girl was
raped by her stepfather.
It is cruel and dangerous to force a 10-year-old girl to carry a
pregnancy to term, Dr. Dalia Brahmi, Ipas’s director of clinical affairs
told The Guardian.
“Very young adolescents [under 15-years-old] have a high risk of
eclampsia, infection, preterm birth and intrauterine growth restriction”
compared with adult women.
Despite these risks, the government of Paraguay has refused to grant
the mother’s request to terminate the girl’s pregnancy. Paraguayan law
only permits abortion when a pregnancy threatens a person’s life, and
was cited in March by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights for its overly restrictive law.
The case has drawn global attention; the case has been covered by news agencies around the world, and on April 27 Amnesty International launched a campaign urging the government to reverse its position.
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