Church Stops 11-Year-Old Abused by Grandfather From Getting Legal Abortion

The fate of an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a family member has unleashed a fierce debate between human rights activists and the Catholic church in Bolivia, as religious groups seek to force her to complete the pregnancy and give birth.

The girl was impregnated after being repeatedly raped and suffering other sexual abuse by the father of her stepfather in the town of Yapacaní, in Bolivia’s eastern Santa Cruz region.

The girl was living with her sisters and 61-year-old step-grandfather, who is now in jail for the crime, because her parents were in La Paz working.

The case has thrown into sharp relief the gaping holes in the state’s protection for women and girls in Bolivia, which has one of highest levels of inter-familiar sexual violence and abuse in Latin America, and what some activists call a culture of rape.