In the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, a ten-year-old girl raped and impregnated by her stepfather has been denied an abortion.
Quintana Roo is one of seventeen Mexican states that have recently passed draconian laws criminalizing abortion. Quintana Roo's new law does permit a woman to have an abortion in the case of rape, but only if the abortion is performed in the first 90 days of pregnancy. In this case, the victim has missed the deadline by about a month.
The girl's mother reported the rape to the authorities last month, and human rights groups allege that government officials did not inform the victim of her right to have an abortion. Now that its too late, they're denying her one. Quintana Roo state legislator Maria Hadad insists that authorities and the girl's doctors aren't sharing the full story, and that the pregnancy could have serious mental and physical consequences for her immature body.
State Attorney General Francisco Alor Quezada, meanwhile, made the brilliant observation that "I do not think there is another instance in which the girl could be in better hands."
The nonchalance of the State Attorney General only mimics the general unconcern of Mexican politicians for the fate of women. It is abhorrent to think of a state forcing a raped 10-year-old child to carry and give birth to the child of her stepfather. This is not the "right to life" — it is the right of arrogant, ignorant male politicians to rob a child of her psychological and physical well-being. It is the right of the country's governments to reaffirm their complete and total power of women's bodies, and to go on exercising it with impunity.
Posted via web from Firesaw
No comments:
Post a Comment