The case of an eleven year old raped and taken to a Catholic Church reception center has sparked violent reactions in Bolivia. According to Bolivian media reports, the girl had been raped by her step-grandfather and wanted to undergo an abortion in the fifth month of pregnancy. However, after an offer of help from the Catholic Church, the family changed their minds, it said. The regional representative of the country's ombudsman questioned the behavior of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church in the South American country denied in a statement that it had intervened to get the girl to continue the pregnancy.
"The forced pregnancy of a girl is considered torture," said a United Nations statement in the Andean country on Wednesday evening (local time).
Accordingly, the UN urged the protection of the rights of girls who have been victims of sexual violence.
The Bolivian Interior Minister Carlos Eduardo del Castillo had previously written on Twitter: "If an eleven-year-old girl is forced to give birth to a child that is the result of rape, all of her rights are violated." An abortion is in Bolivia in the case of one Rape legal even after 13 weeks of pregnancy.
During demonstrations on the right to free and safe abortion in Bolivia this week, participants carried banners that read, "Girls, not mothers," among other things.
39,999 pregnancies in girls under the age of 18 were registered in the South American country in 2020, according to the non-governmental organization "Casa de la Mujer".