This month, a 10-year-old girl gave birth in Spain. The kicker? The parents, of Romanian origin, claim that this is normal for their country. Whether this is true or not, is not my concern. My worry is for the fifth-grader who just became a mother.
It gets a little hairy when you factor in that the girl was pregnant when she immigrated to Spain and that the father’s also a minor. But these are not the central issues.
When I see things like this I check to make sure I’m not being ethnocentric, judging another culture’s beliefs based on my own. But just like female genital mutilation and stoning a woman who committed adultery, my concern for the victim overrides my anxiety that I’m being judgmental of another society.
Both the child and her baby could’ve had serious medical problems. What really distresses me is that the girl’s parents justify this birth. They don’t condemn it, claim their daughter was rebellious, that this was a one-time thing, or that they would never let it happen again.
These parents can still love and accept their daughter and grandchild, but say that it shouldn’t have happened. The child is 10. Saying that this is OK concerns me because it runs the chance that this little girl could get pregnant again soon.
I can’t tell if they’re making excuses or if they genuinely believe this is acceptable. However, Spanish law considers sex with a child under the age of 13, child abuse and the police are looking into removing the baby, and the baby’s baby, from the extremely- understanding parents.
I understand that parents can’t control everything their children do. I don’t agree with being able to stop your 10-year-old from getting pregnant, mostly because my parents made sure my sisters and I didn’t. But today is a different time. The world is different and so are parenting styles.
Allowing this girl to think getting pregnant at 10 is OK is about as wrong as it gets. It greatly disturbs me that her role models, her caregivers, her protectors, are willing to not only rationalize this but encourage it. As a forward-thinking, progressive society, we are aware of the dangers of such a young girl getting pregnant and we all have a responsibility to protect the children of the world when we can.
We should all be outraged. We should protest and call for some legal intervention.
After all, her parents aren’t protecting her. Who will?
