11-year-old girl gives birth to rapist's baby after Argentina delays request for abortion

'I want this thing the old man put inside me taken out', she had told officials

Pro-choice activists protest in Buenos Aires, Argentina (EPA/Aitor Pereira)

An 11-year-old girl has given birth to her rapist’s baby after authorities in Argentina delayed her request for an abortion.

The girl had become pregnant after her grandmother’s 65-year-old partner raped her.

She underwent a caesarean section on Tuesday after 23 weeks of pregnancy and her baby is unlikely to survive.

The girl had been adamant she wanted to terminate the pregnancy from the beginning.

“I want this thing the old man put inside me taken out,” she told officials after she was admitted to hospital following two suicide attempts, The Guardian reports.

Even though abortion is legal in Argentina in cases of rape or when a mother’s life is in danger, her case was delayed over uncertainty about her legal guardian.

Her mother agreed with her daughter’s request, but because she had been placed in her grandmother’s care her mother’s consent was deemed insufficient.

However, her grandmother had been stripped of her guardianship for living with the rapist, so she could not give consent either.

The girl was placed in her grandmother’s care in 2015, after her two older sisters were reportedly abused by her mother’s partner.

Her case faced a further hurdle as several doctors refused to carry out the procedure because of personal beliefs.

She underwent the C-section on Tuesday after health authorities in the state of Tucuman instructed the hospital director to follow a family judge’s decision to carry out the “necessary procedures to attempt to save both lives”.

But the family court quoted in the statement has since said it made no mention of saving two lives, according to the BBC.

The girl’s plight has reignited debate around abortion in Argentina, a predominantly Catholic country and the home of Pope Francis.