10-Year-Old Mexican Rape Victim Denied Abortion

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."

Wow, I can't think of another instance in which the girl could be in better hands, either! I mean, maybe if she wasn't being forced to give birth at age 10, when her chance of dying in childbirth is 5 times higher than that of women who have gone through puberty! Maybe if she lived in a country that didn't make it so difficult for rape victims to get abortions; according to a Human Rights Watch report, rape victims in Mexico face a "second assault" when they try to seek abortions, in which public and government officials make the process as painful and prolonged as possible. Maybe if her country did not pass laws which throw women in jail for having abortions, while 62% of the population believes in decriminalizing the practice and the actual abortion rate is 40 times that of the U.S.? Maybe then, she'd 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.