A protest for legal abortion in Peru in September 2022. Fotoholica Press (GETTY IMAGES)
In mid-June, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a historic ruling: it found that the Peruvian state violated the rights to health and life of a 13-year-old indigenous girl named Camila, who was a victim of rape and incest. by not providing information or access to legal and safe abortion. The resolution calls on the state to decriminalize abortion in all cases of child pregnancy and to change the rules on access to therapeutic abortion. In doing so, their special use in girls is emphasized due to the enormous risk associated with it, and it is also requested to establish an intersectoral mechanism that prevents the victim from being traumatized again at any price. Two months later, a very similar case shows that the government and relevant authorities have failed in their duties, affecting another small case.
The girl in question is eleven years old and is called Mila not only to protect her identity but also to make it clear that the damage has been repeated to her and happened just like Camila. Mila hails from a humble area of Iquitos, the capital of the Loreto jungle region. From the age of six she was systematically abused by her stepfather and a month ago she found out that she was thirteen weeks pregnant. The judiciary declared the application for preventive detention unfounded and released the attacker. As for Mila, the Loreto Special Protection Unit (UPE) decided to send her to one of their shelters, supposedly to protect her from her family. Not only her, but also her three brothers, the last four months old. The mother, who also does not wish to reveal her identity, stated that she was also a victim of her partner who threatened her with death and that because of this she could not have helped her daughter.
“I was scared because he threatened me, he closed the door in front of me. When I wanted to go out, he said to me, “If you tell the neighbors, I’ll kill you and leave.” When I talk about him, I’m scared. “I have nightmares,” said the mother of the research portal Epicentro TV. She assures that she asked Mila to have a therapeutic abortion, but the special protection unit did not activate the protocol and therefore did not provide them with the necessary information.
Just as the Center for the Promotion and Defense of Sexual and Reproductive Rights (Promsex) took over the legal defense of the mother, the UPE referred Mila to the Regional Hospital of Loreto with the intention of having a medical board decide that the little girl who hadn’t even finished primary school completed could access a therapeutic abortion. On August 3, doctors decided that Mila should continue the pregnancy. Their arguments: The eleven-year-old girl herself told them that she wanted the child and that cases of rape were not included in the therapeutic abortion protocol. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), girls under the age of fifteen have a threefold risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes compared to girls over the age of twenty.
Promsex has managed to re-examine the case: the Department for Women and Vulnerable Populations has already confirmed that a new medical panel will analyze Mila’s case to determine whether or not she can terminate her pregnancy. “I want it removed from her womb. I want to see my daughter, but I don’t want to see the baby because it hurt my daughter,” the mother said.
The mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UNFPA, UN Women and other organizations in Peru issued a joint statement expressing their deep concern about the case and calling on the Peruvian state , to contact the relevant authorities: “ We urge you to reconsider the decision to deny her access to therapeutic abortion and to guarantee this right to Mila and all pregnant girls and adolescents who are victims of sexual violence – with safe and age-appropriate procedures – and within the 22nd week of pregnancy stipulated in the protocol of this medical intervention (…) We remember that forced motherhood as a result of rape is involuntary and endangers public health.
According to the women’s emergency centers, 4,031 cases of sexual violence against minors have been treated in Peru so far this year. 4,238 cases were registered throughout 2020. According to the newspaper El Comercio, 1,100 children under the age of fifteen give birth in the country every year. Unfortunately, the horror experienced by Mila and Camila is no exception, but a non-stop drama.
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