The Brazilian Justice reported this Monday that it will investigate the conduct of a judge who denied an abortion to a girl of 11 year old rape victim an assumption protected by the legislation, as revealed by The Intercept Brasil portal.
The Court of Justice of the state of Santa Catarina (south) indicated in a statement that it had instituted a process in the administrative sphere to "due diligence of the facts" of this case, which proceeds under summary secrecy "because it involves a minor".
According to The Intercept Brasil, the family only realized that the minor was pregnant when they observed that her belly began to grow and before the repeated episodes of nausea that she had been suffering.
A quick pharmacy test and a test at a private doctor confirmed last May that was in an advanced state of pregnancyaccording to the aforementioned medium.
It was then that they sought to interrupt the pregnancy of the little girl at the Polydoro Ernani University Hospital in Sao Thiago, in Florianopolis, the capital of Santa Catarina.
In Brazil, abortion is only allowed in cases of risk to the mother, rape, as in this case, or fetuses with anencephaly.
However, the medical team refused to perform the abortion due to internal hospital protocols, which reportedly only allow such a procedure until 20 weeks gestation and by then the girl was 22 weeks and 2 days. For this reason, they demanded a judicial authorization, always according to The Intercept Brasil.
The case ended up in the hands of Judge Joana Ribeiro, who, at the request of prosecutor Mirela Dutra, determined that the minor be admitted to a public shelter with the intention, at first, of protecting the victim from her aggressor and later to prevent the mother "perform some procedure to operate on the death of the baby".
In a subsequent hearing to which The Intercept Brasil had access, Ribeiro argued that authorizing an abortion at this point in the administration would be a "homicide"despite the fact that the victim has the right to it, as stipulated in the legislation for this type of case.
The magistrate, with the support of the regional prosecutor, proposed on May 9 to maintain the pregnancy "one or two weeks" more to increase the chances that the fetus will survive.
"Would you bear a little more?"the judge asked the girl at that hearing, according to The Intercept Brasil.
Ribeiro also asked the minor what was "the expectation" what had "in relation to the baby"if I wanted "see him born"what name would you give it and if the "father of the baby" in allusion to the alleged rapist "Would you agree to give him up for adoption?".
"Today there is technology to save the baby and we have 30,000 couples who want the baby, who accept the baby. That sadness today of you (for the mother) and your daughter is the happiness of a marriage"affirmed the judge, according to the aforementioned portal.
The Intercept Brasil pointed out that until this Monday the minor is still hospitalized in a public shelter when she is about to enter the 29th week of pregnancy, since most pregnancies have an average duration of between 37 and 42 weeks.