The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion staged a demonstration Monday in Buenos Aires to draw attention to the state's various failures to defend the interests of a 12-year-old girl who was raped by at least seven men last year.
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The young girl, who is reported to be developmentally delayed, became pregnant as a result of the sexual assault. She is a also member of the Wichi Indigenous community in the northern province of Salta.
In Argentina, abortion is legal in certain circumstances, including rape. However, authorities failed to tell her family that she could seek a legal abortion and she ultimately carried the fetus for six months. It was considered a high-risk pregnancy due to her age and physical condition.
She finally had an abortion by Cesarian section last week after doctors were able determine the fetus suffered from anencephaly, or the lack of a major portion of the skull or brain.
Provoking even further anger was the fact that the alleged perpetrators of the sexual assault were identified, yet only three are presently detained.
The Human Rights Commission of the Salta province said authorities failed the girl and committed a number of irregularities.
The femicide of a 14-year-old pregnant girl in Argentina last year gave rise to the “Ni Una Menos” (Not One Less) movement that saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets to demand and end to gender-based violence.
Instances of gang rapes have recently made headlines throughout Latin America.
In Brazil, a 16-year-old woman was raped by as many as 33 men in an assault that was shared on social media. That incident also provoked outrage and led to many protests that challenged sexist attitudes and rape culture in South America.
Elsewhere, in the United States the lenient sentencing of convicted rapist Brock Turner led many to criticisms that the U.S. justice system is failing survivors of sexual assault.