State Law impedes 11 year old Rape victim from Aborting Stepfather's Child

After being submitted to medical exams by specialists in Mérida, Yucatán and having her health and pregnancy reported both healthy and stable, Amalia is denied the right to abort, at least in her state Quintana Roo, in which Penal Codes prevent abortions which do not put the Mother's life at risk.

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Amalia, who turned 11 this past Tuesday, is now 17 weeks pregnant after being raped in her rural community of Rovirosa, by her 27 year old stepfather Isaac Santiago Martínez.

The Director of National System for Integral Family Development, Lizbeth Gamboa Song, said Amalia, her mother Zeida Morales Vazquez and DIF faculty staff traveled last Monday to the state of Yucatan to undergo a new medical assessment and a third four-dimensional ultrasound, by Dr. Juan Carlos Navarrete Jaimes, a specialist at Texas Children Hospital in Mérida.

The results of these new medical exams will be integrated into the child's file in Pamar, where Amalia has stayed since late March, when the prosecution asked the State to grant custody of the child to DIF.

"Dr. Navarrete submitted a written document that states the girl's health is good, but to protect her and to fulfill our duties, she must receive extra prenatal care."

The official confirmed that the child is already 17 weeks pregnant and that DIF has no legal say over the child's pregnancy; by law only judicial and ministerial authorities can determine whether an abortion may be granted.

She also noted that no NGO has approached authorities to offer support in favor of the child's abortion. Only Luz Maria Navarette Beristain, President of the Human Rights Commission of the local Congress, expressed concern about the health of Amalia.

Gamboa Song explained that when children live cases of abuse or violence, the legal framework indicates that while the acts are being investigated, the minor must remain under the under the custody of the State, which is specifically within the government entinty DIF. That's why Amalia has been in Pamar since March 27 and will leave there as determined by the investigations and administrative decisions of the ministerial or judicial authority managing her case.

The situation faced by young Amalia shows that despite the state's Penal Code provides four grounds for exception to allow abortion, there is no legal structure to allow authorization.

Lawmakers, when passing the Right to Life from the moment of Conception law, failed to establish in the procedural code special abortion cases which judges may be able permit and be practiced.