A girl subjected to a cesarean section before her pregnancy due to rape was abandoned in Piura hospital: family, doctors and police are involved

The girl is 10 years old and faces a forced pregnancy product of rape. Last Sunday evening, she was left in critical condition at the hospital Saint Rose of Piura and she had to undergo an emergency caesarean, according to the first results of the public ministry.

A few hours later, his mother appeared, along with other relatives, to hand over the body of the fetus, which they buried clandestinely in a cemetery 20 minutes from the city.

There are no more details, but we know that the miner had not accessed the therapeutic abortiondespite the fact that in these circumstances the interruption is authorized because of the imminent risk: a pregnancy in this age group implies four times more probability of death.

The case shows, once again, the vulnerable situation in which girls find themselves in Peru—where every day, on average, four children under the age of 14 are forced to become mothers after being victims of sexual abuse— , but especially how the state continually fails to protect them.

So far in 2023, 71 girls and teenage girls have given birth to mothers, according to the Ministry of Health’s live birth certificate registration system released by the Ombudsman. According to the legislation, this means that they were all sexually assaulted.

The minor was born in Morrope (Lambayeque), although, according to initial inquiries, her family moved her to a neighborhood in piura hiding the pregnancy: she was 24 weeks old when she entered the hospital four days ago, accompanied by an aunt.

However, the fetus did not show vital signs, so doctors performed uterine surgery. He Sainte-Rose Hospital did not respond to GlobeLiveMedia for more details on the case.

“Motherhood resulting from sexual abuse is forced and (…) has obstetric consequences because the body has not developed and there is also damage to their mental health due to the circumstances in which the conception has took place,” said the representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Peru, Hugo Gonzalez.

“To ensure that a girl, an adolescent girl or a woman forced motherhood as a result of sexual abuse may constitute cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment,” he added. The situation is further complicated when the same family members interfere with investigations.

The colonel louis caballerothe head of the criminal investigation department (Divincri), confirmed that the fetus was arbitrarily buried in a cemetery in Catacaos, nearly 14 km from Piura, to prevent experts from carrying out DNA tests and other forensic samples to determine the identity of the attacker.

“There is a total obstruction to the investigations by the relatives of the father, who are the two sisters, as well as the mother. There are a number of versions so as not to determine the identity of the possible author. The participation of a direct relative is not excluded because of this obstacle,” Caballero said. RPP News.

Given this scenario, the Public Ministry has included in the investigations the direct relatives of the victim, who will be investigated for obstruction of justice and concealment. The doctors and police officers who treated her for an alleged breach of administrative procedures are also implicated.

“It remains to be established whether there is a responsibility of both the doctors and the police personnel of the police station, in administrative matters (…) because it had to be reported to the police station or to the public prosecutor’s office”, declared Colonel added.

The Women’s Portfolio confirmed on Wednesday that the girl had been released and that the Special Protection Unit had issued, as a protective measure, her foster home placement in a reception center. “She is now receiving care and affection in an environment that guarantees her rights,” the office said. Nancy Tolentino. The rapist remains free.

The case has rocked a region which until March last year was reporting 612 cases of teen pregnancies and where seven minors between the ages of 11 and 14 were forced to become mothers. While the Ombudsman asked that the girl undergo a cesarean quickly, another minor was admitted to the same hospital -Santa Rosa- with false stomach pains.

During the evaluation, the doctors detected a 15-week pregnancy, for which she had surgery. Her mother had reported the sexual abuse to a department, which was referred to the Special Prosecutor for Violence Against Women and Family Group. At the moment, his health is stable and he is recovering, according to Radio Cutivalu.

Women, adolescents and girls with high-risk pregnancies have the right to request a therapeutic abortion, a legal method since 1924 for cases where the health or life of the mother is in danger and the pregnancy does not exceed 22 weeks. .

“Stigma, misinformation, religious beliefs, restrictive offer and, until 2014, the lack of a unified protocol, among other barriers, have meant that access” to this service was, in most cases , null, and “that there is an abyss”. between paper and reality”, reviewed a report of Cheers with magnifying glass.

Last year the Council of Ministers He proposed a bill in the Legislative Assembly to punish those convicted of rape with terms of between 15 and 25 years with chemical castration, a move that was introduced in 2018 and failed to pass.

In 2021, the parliamentarian Ruth Luque presented to Congress a proposal to decriminalize abortion on grounds of rape and to modify article 119 of the Penal Code so that it is considered a non-punishable termination of pregnancy, in the same way as therapeutic abortion.

In 2016, women legislators Marisa Glave e Indira Huilca They did the same and, although the initiative was dropped without debate, it was a milestone in the great feminist campaign ‘let her decide’who for the first time succeeded in putting a taboo subject on the agenda and which was spoken of only with the stigma of risk, danger and sin in a country that produces rapists.