Judge Bans Pregnant 11-Year-Old Rape Victim From Getting An Abortion
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A judge in Brazil has refused to allow a pregnant 11-year-old girl from getting an abortion.
The girl's pregnancy was the result of a rape that was allegedly committed in the family home, according to Newsweek.
Once it was discovered that she was growing a baby inside her, she was taken to a hospital in Florianopolis.
Accompanied by her mother, the girl was told by Dr. Polydoro Ernani de Sao Thiago that she couldn't have the abortion at the medical facility because she was already 22 weeks into her pregnancy journey.
In Brazil, abortions are illegal unless they are the result of rape or incest, or if it's determined the pregnancy or birth would put the woman in danger.
However, Dr. Polydoro Ernani de Sao Thiago told the young girl that she would have to get a court order to terminate her baby because she was more than 20 weeks, which was the hospital's policy.
Judge Joana Ribeiro Zimmer ended up blocking the girl from getting an abortion.
The magistrate said the girl was too far along in her pregnancy and told her she should put it up for adoption because there are '30,000 couples who wanted the baby', according to the New York Post.
The news outlet reports the young girl was asked what the baby's name would be and whether her rapist would let her put it up for adoption.
Judge Zimmer explained while refusing to grant the abortion that she was 'protecting the daughter' and would have been 'subjecting her to a homicide'.
The judge also ordered the girl to be housed in a shelter because there was a 'risk' the 11-year-old pregnant girl would 'carry out some procedure to operate on the death of the baby'.
Newsweek reports the shelter order was also handed down to protect the girl 'from her aggressor'.
The girl's mum said she would have performed the abortion herself if she wasn't sent to the shelter.
The case has sparked a furious reaction from some within the heavily religious country and many are questioning why the hospital has a 20-week abortion policy.
The Court of Justice of Santa Catarina says it has 'initiated a request for measures in the administrative sphere for the proper investigation of the facts'.
The court's Internal Affairs Office will be examining why Judge Joana Ribeiro Zimmer refused to let the girl terminate her pregnancy when it was within Brazil's tight legal framework.
Figures reveal many women choose to have illegal abortions in Brazil.
The IPAS organisation says there's an estimated one million abortions every single year in the country, compared to the 1,626 terminations that were legalised in 2012.
IPAS says many 'women, particularly those without the financial or social resources to see a well-trained, willing provider, run a huge legal risk when they decide to end an unwanted pregnancy'.
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