Peru Should Provide Comprehensive Reproductive Care for Girls

UN Committee Finds Peru Violated Girl’s Human Rights, Urges Abortion Reform

Cristina Quijano Carrasco, Researcher, Women's Rights
June 20, 2023

When Camila (a pseudonym), an Indigenous girl in rural Peru, was 13, she became pregnant after years of rape by her father. Authorities denied her request for an abortion, even though the pregnancy posed serious risks to her life and health. Later, when Camila had a miscarriage and sought emergency health care, authorities prosecuted her – and forced her through a traumatizing court process.

Abortions in Peru are punishable by up to two years in prison, except when the life or health of the woman, girl, or pregnant person is in danger. Camila’s case fit this exception for what are known as “therapeutic abortions.” Even so, she was convicted in 2018 and only acquitted on appeal a year later.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/06/20/peru-should-provide-comprehensive-reproductive-care-girls


#NiñasNoMadres: Argentines protest against the forced pregnancy of young girls

#NiñasNoMadres: Argentines protest against the forced pregnancy of young girls
'A pregnant girl is a raped girl'

Translation posted 6 April 2020

The only jurisdictions in Latin America where abortion is legal on request are Cuba, Uruguay, and a few states in Mexico. In Argentina, abortion is legal in only two circumstances: When the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother's life, and when the pregnancy is the result of rape.

On February 19, pro-choice activists demonstrated in front of the Argentine National Congress, in the capital Buenos Aires, calling for the approval of a bill that would make abortion fully legal. Protestors also demanded that the right to abortion in circumstances that are already allowed by Argentine law is also fulfilled.

Continued: https://globalvoices.org/2020/04/06/ninasnomadres-argentines-protest-against-the-forced-pregnancy-of-young-girls/


Argentine filmmaker throws spotlight on abortion amid legalization push

Argentine filmmaker throws spotlight on abortion amid legalization push

Reuters
Updated: March 6, 2020

BUENOS AIRES — Amid a renewed push in Argentina to legalize abortion, filmmaker Andrea Testa hopes to spotlight the plight of young women in a country where campaigners say that every three hours a girl between 10 to 14 years old gives birth.

Testa’s new documentary, “Girl Mother,” follows women from socially vulnerable backgrounds who are forced to have children under Argentine law where abortion is illegal, except in cases of rape and when there is danger to life or health.

Continued: https://o.canada.com/pmn/entertainment-pmn/argentine-filmmaker-throws-spotlight-on-abortion-amid-legalization-push/wcm/c64f5281-ec9d-42c4-8bf6-65794e0473ce


“Niñas, No Madres” (Girls, Not Mothers) regional campaign, Latin America

“Niñas, No Madres” (Girls, Not Mothers) regional campaign, Latin America

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
July 28, 2017

Planned Parenthood Global, Amnesty International, Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida Mexico (GIRE) and Latin American Campaign against Unsafe Abortion (CLACAI) have joined efforts to raise awareness on forced motherhood and its impact on girls’ lives and futures across Latin America through the “Niñas, No Madres” (Girls, Not Mothers) regional campaign.  The campaign calls for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and safe, legal abortion services to end forced motherhood in girls in Latin America.

In the framework of the International Day of Action for Women’s Health, the campaign launched a call to women to share on social media what was their dream when they were girls, along with a childhood photo. The response was amazing: women from all over the region lit up social media with the hashtag #NiñasNoMadres. The timelines, full of cute pictures, brought attention to the toll that forced motherhood has taken on thousands of girls in the region. More than 40 national and international media outlets published pieces about the campaign, including Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and  AJ+.

Latin America is the only region in the world where births among girls under 15 years old is on the rise. Forced motherhood in girls is an urgent public health and human rights problem.

In Guatemala, five girls under the age of 14 become pregnant every day. In Nicaragua, the number of pregnant girls aged 10-14 years old increased 47% from 2001 to 2009. In Ecuador, pregnancy among girls under the age of 15 has increased by 74% in the last decade. In Peru, every year, more than 1,100 births are to girls 12-13 years old.

Planned Parenthood Global has produced the report “Stolen Lives” in English and Spanish, which summarizes qualitative and quantitative research conducted in Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Peru to document the dire physical, mental, and social health consequences of forced pregnancy on girls living in these countries. This report was used as input for the Hemispheric Report on Sexual Violence and Child Pregnancy recently released by the Organization of American States’ Committee of Experts of the Follow-Up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI), which issues recommendations to States, including “ensuring that all pregnancies in girls are considered high risk and allowing legal termination of pregnancy.”

Join us in demanding a better future for girls in Latin America. Follow the campaign on Facebook @ninasnomadres and visit http://www.ninasnomadres.org for more information.

SOURCE: Planned Parenthood Global, email 17 July 2017

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Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/ninas-no-madres-girls-not-mothers-regional-campaign-latin-america/