Eleven


A pregnant child in Santiago Puerto Montt, Chile.

A young girl in Puerto Montt is 14-weeks-pregnant after being raped by her mother’s boyfriend. She is not able to have an abortion as the procedure is illegal in Chile in all cases. The man has confessed to sexually abusing the child.

She’s 11.

The mother spoke in defense of her boyfriend, who was arraigned in court in the southern city of Osorno.

“She wasn’t violated and he would not have used force,” she said, adding that the relationship between them was consensual.

Ah, that’s nice. The child is 11 years old – and her mother says she had “consensual” sex with her mother’s boyfriend? That is some loving mother.

This case has brought new, fierce criticism of Chile’s current abortion laws, which as of 1989, outlaw all cases without exception. Politicians have spoken out on the issue via social media.

You mean girls of 11 shouldn’t be forced to bear children? That can’t be right.

Comments

  1. says

    Cases like these are not infrequent in Latin America. I mean cases where little girls are raped and it sparks a debate about abortion that goes nowhere. Most of them don’t make it to international news outlets, or even national ones, if the place is sufficiently remote.

    Just a tiny thing: although the report comes from the Santiago Times, it’s not “a pregnant child in Santiago, Chile”; the girl lives in Puerto Montt, which is 1,000 km south of Santiago.

  2. Claire Ramsey says

    An eleven year old CANNOT CONSENT. Period. This makes me sick. There needs to be an international fund and team of traveling companions to transport these children to legal abortions (and then to find them another mother and/or father). Shit.

  3. says

    I want to write something, to indicate that I’ve read this and care, but I honestly don’t know what I could write that wouldn’t seem inadequate. This is just so sad and messed up.

  4. AsqJames says

    She’s 11 now, but this Guardian article:

    The girl was repeatedly raped over the course of two years by her mother’s partner, who has been arrested and has confessed to the abuse.

    So this poor child has been sexually abused since at least the age of 9, her mum is apparently OK with that and her President thinks she’s shown deep and mature thinking by saying she wants to keep the baby because “It will be like having a doll in my arms.”

    The whole situation is horrific on every level.

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