An 11-year-old Argentinian girl was forced to give birth to her rapistโs child via C-section after the government denied her an abortion for several weeks, igniting outrage in the country.
The young girl, who has been referred to as โLucรญaโ in order to protect her identity, became pregnant after her grandmotherโs 65-year-old partner raped her, according to local media. Almost immediately, she filed for a legal interruption of pregnancy in Tucumรกn, a self-declared โpro-life provinceโ in Argentina. โI want this thing the old man put inside me taken out,โ she told authorities, per BBC.
The government intervened in Lucรญaโs case. Although her mother agreed with her wishes to terminate the pregnancy, there was confusion over who actually qualified as her legal guardian. Sheโd been placed in her grandmotherโs care, but her grandmother was stripped of her status as guardian for living with the childโs rapist. By the time the Argentian government decided what to do, Lucรญa was too far along in her pregnancy.

On Tuesday, the Tucumรกn a las 7 reported that health authorities told the hospital director to carry out the โnecessary procedures to attempt to save both [the childโs and the fetusโs] lives,โ per a family judgeโs decision. Allegedly out of concern for Lucรญaโs well-being, doctors decided that a C-section at 23 weeks pregnant was less risky than an abortion, a decision that could be in breach of the victimโs rights under criminal code. Currently, the baby is living in an incubator at hospital and it is unknown if it will survive.
Following the C-section, various human rights groups and people involved in the case slammed the Tucumรกn state health authorities over what they believe were โunjustified delaysโ and โviolations of rights,โ arguing that authorities had deliberately kept the child pregnant long enough that she would have to give birth.
โI believe that [the governor of Tucumรกn] Juan Manzur, due to an electoral issue, prevented the legal interruption of the pregnancy and forced to the child to give birth,โ said Cecilia Ousset, who was with the girl during the C-section, per the Buenos Aires Times.
Reports on Lucรญa come nearly seven months after Argentina rejected what wouldโve been a groundbreaking bill for the South American country, legalising abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.