Pandemic brings growing 危険 of pregnancy, 乱用 to Latin American girls
By Christine Murray and Anastasia Moloney
MEXICO CITY/BOGOTA, July 31 (Thomson Reuters 創立／基礎) - W 女／おっせかい屋 her 11-year-old daughter's belly began to grow in May, Paloma discovered the unimaginable - the girl had been 強姦d by her stepfather.
Paloma, whose 指名する has been changed, took her daughter to a public hospital in Mexico's western Michoacan 明言する／公表する, but the child was 否定するd an abortion.
By 法律, Mexico's public hospitals must 供給する abortions for 強姦 生存者s - and also when the mother's health is at 危険, and, in some 明言する／公表するs, if a fetus is 本気で deformed - but in practice, many 辞退する to.
Last year, a total of 470 合法的な abortions were carried out in the public health system in Mexico, a nation of 126 million people, health 省 人物／姿／数字s show.
Across Latin America, 制限s during normal times mean getting a 合法的な abortion is difficult, but it is even harder during coronavirus lockdowns, によれば 専門家s.
With more than 4.3 million COVID-19 事例／患者s, Latin America and the Caribbean have become a 全世界の hotspot for 感染s.
専門家s 警告する of a rise in teenage pregnancies as health care 資源s are コースを変えるd to を取り引きする COVID-19 and 接近 to abortion and contraception become more 限られた／立憲的な, even though most Latin American countries 許す abortions in 事例／患者s of 強姦.
"Unfortunately, there's still a lot of ignorance の中で the 全住民 and in health services over the 法律," said Karla Berdichevsky, who runs Mexico's health 省's 国家の 中心 for Gender 公正，普通株主権 and Reproductive Health.
For the 11-year-old girl, women's 権利s nonprofit Las Libres arranged for her, at 17 weeks 妊娠している, to get care at a 私的な clinic in Mexico City in June まっただ中に the pandemic.
"The girls are 完全に 権力のない," said Veronica Cruz, Las Libres' 創立者.
"They are 正確に／まさに the ones who need more 接近, more 指導／手引, more of everything from the 明言する／公表する and no, it's the other way aroun d."
Teenage girls across the 地域 struggle to get contraception, which is given out for 解放する／自由な by some health providers and in clinics run by the 政府 or nonprofits.
In Colombia, for example, より小数の than a third of girls 老年の 15 to 19 報告（する）／憶測 using contraception in a country where nearly one in every five teenage girls is a mother or is 妊娠している.
"We had high unmet needs in family planning for adolescents. However, this gets worse with the pandemic," said Alma Virginia Camacho-Hubner, 地域の 助言者 on 性の reproductive health for the 国際連合 全住民 基金 (UNFPA).
Mexico's 政府 見積（る）s there could be nearly 22,000 more unwanted pregnancies than normal in 15- to 19-year-olds this year and next 予定 to 欠如（する） of 接近 to contraception.
Across Latin America, 18 million women and teenage girls could stop using contraception 予定 to the pandemic, which could lead to more than 600,000 unwanted pregnancies, UNFPA 見積（る）s.
RAPED AT HOME
Before coronavirus, Latin America and the Caribbean 記録，記録的な／記録するd the second-highest 全世界の 率 of teenage pregnancies, に引き続いて sub-Saharan Africa with numbers rising, the UNFPA said.
There were 66.5 births per 1,000 girls 老年の 15 to 19 from 2010 to 2015 across the 地域, compared with 46 births per 1,000 girls in the same age group globally, UNFPA 人物／姿／数字s show.
Latin America's high teenage pregnancy 率s are driven by a 欠如（する） of 接近 to birth 支配（する）／統制する, 性の 暴力／激しさ and a 欠如（する） of education on girls' 権利s.
Teenage girls often get 妊娠している as a result of 強姦 at the 手渡すs of 親族s at home, and lockdowns and school 終結s mean girls are home with abusive family members.
"Homes are not 安全な places 権利 now, and girls and women are now 罠にかける at home with their abusers," said Daniel Molina, gender and masculinities 専門家 at children's charity 計画（する） International.
報告（する）／憶測s of 性の 暴力／激しさ during the coronavirus lockdowns have 増加するd although there is no data showing 売春婦 w many result in teenage pregnancies.
In many countries 政府-run hotlines have been inundated with calls 報告（する）／憶測ing 性の 暴力／激しさ.
Peru's hotline received 17,000 calls about 性の 暴力／激しさ against children during the first 107 days of lockdown.
In Colombia, nearly 22 事例／患者s 伴う／関わるing 性の 乱用 against girls were 報告（する）／憶測d per day on 普通の／平均（する） from the start of the lockdown on March 25 until June 23.
A 計画（する） International online 調査する 行為／行うd in June of 350 teenage girls in 12 countries, 含むing five Latin American countries, showed most of them were worried about gender-based 暴力／激しさ during the pandemic.
There were 追加するd 恐れるs that poverty 予定 to the 経済的な fallout from COVID-19 means girls become more 攻撃を受けやすい to 存在 押し進めるd into wedlock or to live with a partner as their parents become too poor to 料金d them.
Across the 地域, an 付加 50 million people will become poor or 極端に poor 予定 to the 経済的な 衝撃 原因（となる）d by the pandemic, によれば U.N. 見積（る）s.
"Girls are seeing 早期に marriage and unions as a way out of poverty. But when they get there, they see that there is another space of 乱用," Molina said. (報告（する）／憶測ing by Christine Murray and Anastasia Moloney; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. Please credit the Thomson Reuters 創立／基礎, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live 自由に or 公正に／かなり. Visit http://news.信用.org)
