The birth of Lucia’s child Tuesday was widely condemned by women’s rights activists in the country, who say Lucia and her mother repeatedly asked for her to have an abortion — a request that was delayed by nearly five weeks, according to the BBC. Debate over who the girl’s guardian was complicated the planned abortion, and several doctors refused to perform the procedure because of their personal beliefs, the outlet said.<doc-sep>An 11-year-old girl has given birth to her rapist’s baby after authorities in Argentina delayed her request for an abortion. The girl had become pregnant after her grandmother’s 65-year-old partner raped her. She underwent a caesarean section on Tuesday after 23 weeks of pregnancy and her baby is unlikely to survive. The girl had been adamant she wanted to terminate the pregnancy from the beginning. “I want this thing the old man put inside me taken out,” she told officials after she was admitted to hospital following two suicide attempts, The Guardian reports. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris.<doc-sep>Doug Stanglin USA TODAY The case was already horrible enough: An 11-year-old Argentine girl was raped and impregnated by her grandmother's boyfriend. But after a protracted legal battle to win the right for an abortion, doctors shocked "Lucia" by delivering a baby via cesarean section at 23 weeks. Doctors say the baby has little chance of surviving, according to media reports. The uproar by anti-abortion forces in this predominantly Catholic country reignited a debate only six months after the Argentine Senate narrowly rejected a bill to legalize abortion. The ordeal began on Jan. 29, at week 19 of gestation, when the girl, identified only as "Lucia," went to a primary care center in Buyuirracu, in the northwest of Tucuman province, to complain of a "gut pain" that was diagnosed as a pregnancy. "I want you to take out of my tummy what the old man put there," the girl was quoting as saying in a complaint lodged with authorities in the northern province of Tucuman, the Guardian reports. After suffering self-inflicted lesions resulting from apparent suicide attempts, Lucia was placed in state care, according to the newspaper. However, her request for an abortion was delayed by almost five weeks, as some doctors refused to carry out the procedure and a legal row erupted over whether her mother or her grandmother had the legal right to speak on her behalf. Mariana Paterlini of human rights organization Andhes, which filed a brief in Lucia’s case, told The Daily Beast that Lucia had sought permission for an abortion eight times, including at the trial for her abuser, who is currently awaiting sentencing. Abortion in Argentina, which is nominally 70 percent Catholic and the home of Pope Francis, is illegal, except in cases of rape or if the mother's health is in danger. But Lucia's fight ran into delays, including a battle over whether her mother or grandmother was the legal guardian. At one point, the grandmother was stripped of her guardianship for cohabiting with the rapist. A major holdup, however, was the refusal of some doctors, calling themselves conscientious objectors, to perform the procedure. By the time the issues had been settled, the girl was in the 23rd week of her pregnancy. After the provincial Family Court ruled that the abortion was permissible, the agonizing ordeal got even more complicated. Two rivate doctors, Cecilia Outsset, a gynecologist and her husband, Jose Gigena, volunteered to perform the operation. But they were assigned three hospital staff members – an anesthetist, a surgical technician, and nurse – who declared themselves as conscientious objectors and would not participate, according to Clarin, Argentina's largest newspaper. Outsset told Infobae: "We were left alone, but we could not leave her, we could not say 'not now.'" "I had to inform my husband and call an anesthetist from another hospital," she said. After her transfer to Eva Peron hospital, lawyers of the Argentine Northwest in Human Rights and Social Studies (Andhes), and the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women's Human Rights (CLADEM) had presented a legal brief last week supporting her request for an abortion, but were not allowed to make contact with Lucia. In the end, an aunt was reached by Facebook who intervened to permit the girl and her mother to declare in writing the desire to terminate the pregnancy. Meanwhile, women told Clarin that anti-abortion activists, purportedly posing as doctors, had entered the hospital to try to convince Lucia and her mother to continue with the pregnancy. Outsset, who counts herself a conscientious objector, but also supports the right of other groups to seek legalization, said the decision to perform a C-section was determined to be the safer option. Eventually, with Lucia sedated, doctors carried out a C-section instead of an abortion, arguing it would have been too risky to perform the latter, the BBC reported. "Vaginally, it wasn't possible," she said, according to Clarin. "Her body wasn't sufficiently developed for a 23-week pregnancy, and even if it had been, she wasn't psychologically ready given the many abuses she'd suffered." Outsset tells Radio Nacional Tucumán that when she and her husband first saw Lucia in the hospital room, she was playing with dolls and weighed barely 110 pounds. “When I saw her my legs trembled, it was like seeing my youngest daughter," she said. "The little girl did not fully understand what was going to happen.” In the end, Family Court Judge Valeria Brand ruled in favor of the abortion. The Ministry of Health in Tucuman then ordered the medical intervention, but with a message: "save the two lives." But as the anger rose among pro-abortion groups, the press office of the Supreme Court of Tucumán issued a statement declaring that at no time did Judge Brand include a "save the two lives" call in her ruling, Pagina/12 reports. The case has inflamed activists on both sides of the issue. Last year, the bill to legalize abortion up to 14 weeks was passed by the Argentinian chamber of deputies but failed in senate, under strong pressure from the church. "The State is responsible for torturing Lucia," said #NiUnaMenos, which means 'not one less,' one of the feminist organizations leading the campaign to legalize abortion. Lawyer Soledad Deza, of Catholics for the Right to Decide, said Lucía’s case was not one of conscientious objection by doctors, AFP reports. “Regrettably, what we have here is a conservative action stemming from the executive branch,” Deza told Página/12. “Abortion is a legal option in the case of abuse or risk to life. The state has to ensure the procedure. Here there was the worst kind of cruelty with this child.” “That defenseless and innocent human being is whom abortionists managed to pull from its mother’s womb in Tucumán, 24 weeks and premature. Now it lies with tubes attached and in risk of dying when 20 more days could have been allowed to pass to guarantee both lives ...,” tweeted Mariano Obarrio, a journalist for La Nación.<doc-sep>
An 11-year-old Argentinian girl has given birth via cesarean section after doctors refused to perform an abortion due to confusion over the country’s laws. The girl requested an abortion after she was raped by her grandmother’s 65-year-old partner and became pregnant, according to the BBC. ADVERTISEMENT She told health authorities in the northern province of Tucumán that she wanted “this thing the old man put inside me taken out.” Abortion is legal in Argentina in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s health, but officials were reportedly unable to determine who the girl’s legal guardian was in order for that person to provide consent for the procedure. The girl had recently been placed under the care of her grandmother, but because of the rape, the grandmother had been stripped of her guardianship and could not provide the necessary consent, according to the report. The girl's mother supported her request, but officials did not recognize her consent, either, because the girl lived with her grandmother. The 11-year-old's request was granted after about five weeks of delays, by which point she was 23 weeks pregnant. But some doctors, citing personal beliefs, then refused to perform the abortion because she was too far along in the pregnancy, according to the BBC. Doctors eventually performed a C-section, saying that an abortion would have been too risky. The baby was born alive but not expected to survive. The girl’s case has reignited debate over Argentina’s abortion laws, which pro-choice activist groups have been pushing to loosen following a 2014 decision by the Argentine Senate to reject legalizing abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Human rights organization Amnesty International issued a statement on the birth, calling the situation akin to “torture.” “Forcing an 11-year-old girl to have to resort to an emergency cesarean which could have been avoided is a cruel injustice that inflicts such psychological and physical harm on the child it could amount to torture under international law,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, said in the statement.