(CNN) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has called it unacceptable that an 11-year-old rape victim has been allowed a legal abortion, calling it an act of “barbarism.”
The plight of the 11-year-old girl, who became pregnant after being raped in Santa Catarina, Brazil, at the age of 10, made headlines across the country. Initially, doctors at Hospital Universitário Polydoro Ernani de São Thiago denied the girl an abortion at 22 weeks, saying the pregnancy was too far along.
Under Brazilian law, abortion is permitted when the pregnancy is the result of rape, as a means of saving the life of the mother, and when the fetus does not have a functional brain. The law does not specify any gestation time limit that allows the termination to be legally performed at any time during the pregnancy.
When the girl’s case was brought before the Santa Catarina Court of Justice, Judge Joana Ribeiro Zimmer asked the girl if she “would like to choose a name for the baby” and if “the father of the baby would agree that be given up for adoption,” according to a court report broadcast by The Intercept Brasil.
Zimmer ruled that the girl should be taken to a shelter to prevent her from performing “some kind of procedure to achieve the death of the baby.” The girl remained in the shelter for almost a month.
The Public Ministry of Florianópolis opened an investigation on Tuesday. It recommended that the hospital carry out a legal abortion regardless of the gestation period and without the need for a judicial decision. In a press release published by prosecutors on Wednesday, the hospital performed the abortion at 29 weeks.
Bolsonaro, a conservative Catholic who has often said he would like to ban abortion altogether, sent a series of tweets about the case on Thursday.
“We know that this is a delicate case, but taking the life of an innocent person, in addition to violating the fundamental right of every human being, does not heal wounds or do justice to anyone, on the contrary, abortion only exacerbates this tragedy! There will always be other ways!”
Bolsonaro called for the “abuses” committed by all those involved in the procedure to be investigated. Also noting that it caused the “death of a healthy baby at 7 months of gestation, the violation of the secrecy of justice and total contempt for laws and ethical principles.”
Bolsonaro’s comments came just before The United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wadegiving states the right to ban abortions.
Daniela Gonzalez-Roman contributed to this report.