Paraguayan 11-year-old gives birth after pregnancy sparked abortion debate

An 11-year old girl who became pregnant after being raped by her stepfather and was denied an abortion by Paraguayan authorities has given birth, in the culmination of a case which put renewed focus on Latin America’s strict anti-abortion laws.
 The girl, known by the legal pseudonym “Mainumby”, gave birth to a girl weighing 3.55kg (7.8lbs) at the Reina Sofia maternity hospital, a facility run by the Red Cross in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital.
The baby was delivered by Caesarean section as a natural birth was judged to be too dangerous. Neither the mother nor the child are reported to have experienced any health complications.
“It was like any other Caesarean, but with the age difference,” Reina Sofia Director Mario Villalba told local radio. “She’s well and progressing like in any other surgery, but we’ll see afterwards how she gets on as a mother.” Erika Guevara, Americas director at Amnesty International, said in a statement that Mainumby was “lucky to be alive”, adding that “only time will tell the true extent of the physical and psychological consequences of her tragic ordeal”.
 “The fact that Mainumby did not die does not excuse the human rights violations she suffered at the hands of the Paraguayan authorities, who decided to gamble with her health, life and integrity despite overwhelming evidence that this pregnancy was extremely risky,” she said.