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Updated July 3rd, 2022 at 06:13 IST

10-year-old rape survivor in Brazil seeking abortion told by judge to 'stay pregnant'

Judge Zimmer asked survivor of sexual crime if she wanted to “name the baby” and that she may consider giving birth and adoption of her rapist's child.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
brazil
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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A 10-year-old rape survivor in Brazil, who had only realized she was pregnant after 22 weeks, was told by a Brazilian judge to “stay pregnant” in an anti-abortion ruling that has sparked hue and outcry across Brazil about women’s reproductive rights. The matter comes to light as United States recently overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade giving states the power to restrict abortions as their constitutional right. Brazil’s state news agency Intercept Brasil reports that the family had to seek authorization for the abortion of the now 11-year-old rape survivor at a courtroom in Southern Brazil, but the prosecutors insisted that the girl stay pregnant “a little while longer.” 

Judge asks if rape survivor wanted to 'name the baby'

Judge Joana Ribeiro Zimmer asked the survivor of the sexual crime if she wanted to “name the baby” and that she may consider giving birth and adoption of her rapists’ child. Ribeiro Zimmer also sought custody of the girl from her family to avoid getting the foetus aborted shocking the Latin American nation. Abortion in Brazil is deeemed criminal by law, with penalties of one to three years of imprisonment for the pregnant woman, and one to four years of imprisonment for the doctor except in cases of rape, incest or severe fetal abnormality. The controversial Brazilian law has remained unchanged since 1940. 

A 25-year-old Brazilian woman similarly had hit the headlines last year for hardship, as she took out a loan for 5,000 Brazilian reais ($1,000) and without informing her family flew to Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, to get an abortion. “Having a child that I don’t want, and have no conditions to raise, and being obliged, would be torture,” Sara told reporters at the time, while she escaped at the airport. Women in the Latin Amaerican nation have long been barred from legal abortion access, and there have been hurdles to termination of a pregnancy after rape. 

“Instead of ensuring that rape survivors have access to legal abortion, the government in Brazil has adopted policies that could discourage women and girls from seeking support and medical care after sexual violence,” acting deputy Americas director at Human Rights Watch, Tamara Taraciuk Broner, says. 

The now 11 year old girl who was brutally raped and impregnated  was refused abortion at the hospital in Santa Catarina, the southern state in Brazil where she lives, without a judicial approval first. While the pregnant child, victim of sexual violence, stood infront of the court to seek justice, she was ordered to be separated from her family by Judge Joana Ribeiro Zimmer to be taken into camp to prevent what the prosecutor deemed “homicide.” The case is a grim reality of what consequences may follow if the legal protection to women’s reproductive rights are abolished, such as in the United States now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. Brazil’s health ministry had also issued a memo that read: “Every abortion is a crime.” Due to the Latin American nation’s lack of safe and legal abortion for females, an estimated 17,000 children aged 10 to 14 get pregnant due to the sexual violence. 

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Published July 3rd, 2022 at 06:13 IST

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