Photos: (Left) Abortion rights activists demonstrating outside Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Tomas F. Cuesta/Associated Press. (Right) Activists in favour of the legalisation of abortion demonstrate outside the Argentine embassy in Chile; Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images
A 12-year-old rape victim in Argentina has been forced to give birth to twins after being denied access to an abortion by authorities. While Argentina has extremely strict abortion laws, it is still permissible for a child under the age of 15 to access an abortion in certain circumstances. In this case however, the access was denied by the decision-making body.
It is alleged that local authorities intentionally kept on putting-off dealing with the case of the 12-year-old so that her pregnancy would be so advanced that abortion would no longer be permissible.
The Network of Health Professionals for the Right to Decide, an activist group in Argentina, accused the local authorities of:
"Deliberately delaying acting on the girl's situation until she was far enough into her pregnancy for the twins to survive outside of her womb."
The activist group later released a statement on the girl's case in which they expressed their anger at the current laws and the way in which the girl's case had been handled. They said:
"Despite the fact that the National Directorate of Sexual Health made an offer to immediately resolve the situation, preserving the physical and emotional health of the girl, the authorities in charge of the local Health portfolio, rejected the proposal and they decided not to guarantee this girl her right to ILE (legal interruption of pregnancy)."
They also said that they themselves had contacted the authorities and offered to deal with the girl's situation at the start of her pregnancy.
The girl gave birth to twins following a caesarean section, the identity of the man who raped her is not known. She has now been placed in the care of authorities due to her parent's 'legal situation'.
As the law currently stands in Argentina, it is entirely illegal to have an abortion, or to carry out an abortion, unless the life of the mother is in significant danger. Prior to 2019, it was also illegal for a woman to have an abortion even if she had been raped or had been the victim of incest.
Any woman that is found to have aborted her child can face up to 15 years in prison. A woman can also be punished by up to 4 years in prison if they behave in a manner which is likely to lead to the death of an unborn child.
The laws have, over time, led to a huge number of illegal abortions, some of which have resulted in the womens' deaths.
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