{"id":206813,"date":"2019-07-19T11:10:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T16:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=206813"},"modified":"2019-07-19T01:00:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T06:00:09","slug":"baby-blame-rape-survivor-raise-survived-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/baby-blame-rape-survivor-raise-survived-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The baby is not to blame’: Rape survivor’s family to raise baby girl after she survived abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A 14-year-old rape survivor in Bolivia decided to undergo an abortion<\/a> — but miraculously, her baby survived. The girl\u00a0had been working at a restaurant part-time, and the owner was allegedly the perpetrator of the violence against her. At first, the girl did not even realize what was happening to her, El Deber reported<\/a>. “She (the victim) did not even understand that she was pregnant,” Federico Urquizo, medical director for the maternity ward at the Percy Boland Women’s Hospital, said to El Deber.<\/p>\n

While abortion is illegal in Bolivia in most circumstances, when the mother has been raped, it is allowed. What made this case especially unusual was that the mother was 26 weeks<\/em> pregnant, and multiple doctors refused to participate. “First time in my life that I see this happening,” Urquizo said. “The gynecologists came one turn individually with their letters to refuse. There was a shift change and again more letters arrived. We had to continue reading the laws, we were told that ‘there can be no objection of conscience of the director of the health establishment’.” Meanwhile, the girl tried to commit suicide.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the abortion was committed, with the girl given abortion pills both orally and vaginally. Why a medication abortion was chosen is not clear, but the later in pregnancy the pills are given, the more likely the abortion is to fail. And that’s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n