Obligated to give birth by cesarean section another Argentine girl who had been raped and requested an abortion | Society

It has happened again. At the end of January, the Government of Salta (extreme north of Argentina) He performed a cesarean section on a 12-year-old girl who was raped who had asked for the abortion to which he was entitled by law. Now the same thing has happened to the south, in Tucumán. A child under 11 abused by her grandmother's couple gave birth to a 600-gram baby after insisting for a month to doctors to end the pregnancy. The provincial government ignored the girl's request and on Tuesday night, when she was 23 weeks pregnant, she underwent a cesarean in a public hospital. The baby born weighs 600 grams and their chances of survival are minimal.

The girl arrived with her mother at Eva Perón hospital in Tucumán on January 29 last. She said then that her stomach hurt, but in reality she was in a 19-week pregnancy. She said that her grandmother's boyfriend had raped her. Mother and daughter requested the application of the legal article that, since 1921, allows the legal interruption of pregnancy (ILE) in cases of raped children or when there is risk to the mother. The ILE could have been applied in less than 48 hours, but different feminist groups denounced that the province delayed everything the decision could until the health of the minor made a cesarean section inevitable.

The secretary of Health of Tucumán, Gustavo Vigliocco, told Argentine media that during the process he maintained "a closeness with the girl and her mother." "The girl wants to continue with her pregnancy," she said. "We consider the risks but she is big in build, she has more than 50 kilos." However, the judicial declaration of the minor, disseminated by the newspaper Page 12, contradicts the official. Attended by a psychologist at the hospital, the victim was clear in her desire to have an abortion. "I want you to take out what the old man put in me," he said, without real awareness of what was happening to his body. The girl was raped by her grandmother's partner, who had her in his care by order of a judge. The mother had lost the minor's possession after her own partner abused her two older daughters.

On Tuesday night, the Provincial Health System of Tucumán (Siprosa) issued a statement in which it reported the decision to terminate the girl's pregnancy after a judge acted at the request of the organizations Lawyers and Lawyers of the Argentine Northwest in Human Rights and Social Studies (Andhes) Y Cladem. But the text of the Ministry was confusing: it closed with a request so that "the necessary procedures continue in order to save the two lives". "Justice ordered that the protocol be complied with, but Siprosa added that appointment with a clear intentionality to pressure", says Florencia Vallino, from Andhes.

The cesarean section, finally, was inevitable. "I entered the room and I found a baby girl playing with dolls on the bed," says Cecilia Ousset, the gynecologist of the private system who intervened with the girl along with her husband, doctor José Gigena. "They called me that same morning but I said no because I am an objector, I decided to accompany my husband who is not an objector, because we knew that we were going to find an image that was going to hit us a lot," the doctor explained to the news portal. minutouno.com.

Once inside the operating room, the couple found that the entire medical team refused to participate in the intervention. They also verified that the state of health of the girl, affected by hypertension, and the weeks of pregnancy made abortion very dangerous. They decided to perform a caesarean section. "It was more risky to continue with the pregnancy than to do the surgery, if we did not interrupt the pregnancy, this baby would die," said the doctor.

"We pointed out the responsibility of the system, because it violated all the rights of the girl. She entered on January 29 and there should have been no doubt in the application of the ILE. We do not want this to happen again, that another girl in Tucumán is tortured in this way, "says Vallino.