Pro-abortion lawmakers in Peru are using the case of a rape victim to push for the legalization of abortion in the country.
A report from Catholic News Agency details the situation, in which an 11-year-old girl, Mila, became pregnant after being raped by her stepfather. The National Maternal Perinatal Institute of the Ministry of Health of Peru reported that a medical board authorized a “therapeutic abortion” on the girl, arguing it was necessary “to avoid serious or permanent harm to their physical and mental health.”
Abortion is illegal in the country, but “therapeutic” abortions are permitted in rare cases to save the life of the mother or avoid permanent harm to her health.
Congressman Alejandro Muñante, one of the spokesmen for the Life and Family Caucus in Peru, decried the fact that the girl’s tragic case has been exploited by the abortion industry.
“What I see is the utilization of this case by the abortion lobby. I’m not really seeing a genuine concern. Nothing is said about the protection and accompaniment of this minor, not only at this time but also in what happens to her later,” Muñante said in an August 10 interview with ACI Prensa.
“This always happens. When people talk about a raped girl who gets pregnant, afterwards we don’t see that these people — who say they care about the state of the minor — are accompanying her. That is what concerns me, the utilization of these cases to promote abortion.”
Rape is tragic and unjust, but it should never be used as a justification to end the life of an innocent human being. Abortion is a violent, traumatic procedure. It is not therapeutic, and it often compounds the trauma that rape victims experience. “There are two children to save and attend to,” Muñante noted. “That of the 11-year-old and the one she carries in her womb. The solution to this tragedy cannot be to kill one of them.”
“What she needs is medical care, psychological care, protection so she won’t be raped again; [she needs] financial help,” added Carlos Polo, director of the Population Research Institute for Latin America. “Abortion will not ‘un-rape’ the girl. The already-conceived child needs the same care and attention and that his constitutionally recognized right to life be respected.”
Both men also expressed concern that when lawmakers start justifying abortion for cases like rape and incest, it opens the door for it to be allowed for other reasons.
Muñante said that international pro-abortion NGOs are at work in Peru and “are trying to get Peru to use the concept of therapeutic abortion as a kind of ‘showcase’ for all cases of abortion that they want to be legalized. For example, if the mental or emotional or social health of the woman is affected, they now intend to perform therapeutic abortions.”
“They’re concerned about Mila because there is a lobby that wants its abortion law,” Polo said. “Once the abortion law is obtained, they will forget about girls like Mila.”
