BEIJING: A nine-year-old girl has given birth to a healthy child in northeast China, making it possibly the first case of childbirth at such a young age.
The mother and the 2.75kg baby are doing well after the caesarean operation at a hospital in Changchun in Jilin province.
The Changchun-based City Evening News reported the girl’s parents have sought legal help. Under Chinese law, anyone having sex with a girl under the age of 14 is convicted of rape.
Who impregnated a 9-year-old girl?
It is still unknown at this time. But it was said that the girl’s family already reported the incident to the police. lawyer Liu from Liu Gongcheng Law Firm in Jilin said, in view of women under the age of 14 do not have sexual rights, so any argument of “being consensual” (not going against women’s will) in defense is completely untenable. Anyone who had sexual relation with a girl under 14 constitutes rape, and is to be punished severely.
Another report from Shanghai based hospital said 30% of young girls who had surgical abortions were school students. The hospital run by the People’s Liberation Army revealed that 50% of them were in vocational schools and the rest studied in colleges. The hospital reported that most cases of pregnancy took place immediately after school and college vacations. At least one-third of the cases were in the secondary or advanced stages of pregnancy by the time the girls came to the hospital, it said.
The youngest girl to become a mother was aged five year seven months in 1939 in Peru, says Wikipedia. The second case was in 2006 when an 8-year old girl gave birth in the same country. There were five cases of childbirth of girls aged nine, nine cases of girls aged 10 and eight cases of 11-year old mothers.
A female doctor, long time gynecologist told the reporter, a 9-year-old girl getting pregnant and giving birth is very rare.
