LIFE: Paraguay In Pains Over Rape Of 10-Year-Old Girl by Her Stepfather

A 10-year-old girl who was raped by her stepfather and is now five months pregnant has become the focal point of a wrenching debate over abortion and child abuse in this conservative Catholic country.
Both houses of Paraguay’s Congress discussed her case this week, with opposition leftist parties calling for the decriminalisation of abortion, which is banned except when the mother’s life is in danger.
At the weekend, police arrested the girl’s fugitive stepfather, who is accused of raping the child. He had been on the run for 15 days.
Local media quoted him as denying guilt, saying that he’d never made anyone pregnant before.
The girl’s mother had been detained earlier for allegedly failing to protect her.
Police Commissioner Luis Rojas said the 42-year-old man had been placed in isolation to prevent other inmates from attacking him.
Humanitarian organisations insist the girl’s life is in danger, citing her four-foot-six-inch (1.39 meter) frame and weight of only 75 pounds (34 kilos).
One of Paraguay’s leading churchmen acknowledged Sunday that the nation has been split over the case of a pregnant 10-year-old girl denied an abortion.
The argument over the girl has drawn unusually strong attention to the issues of child abuse and abortion, which is banned in all cases except when the mother’s life is in danger.
“The country is divided in two,” said Msgr Claudio Gimenez, president of the country’s Episcopal Conference, during a homily.
“Some want to legalise abortion, the killing of an innocent who still is in a period of gestation. And for the other side, those who oppose that idea.”