A 9-year old girl in Guadalajara, Mexico has given birth to a baby girl. Authorities there are looking for her “boyfriend”, a 17-year old who ran off after the girl refused to move in with him.
Investigators believe the pregnancy came about as the result of rape, but the girl, identified as Dafne, says the two of them were in a “loving relationship”. She didn’t understand the pregnancy, however, and didn’t even realize that she was carrying a child until she was in her seventh month. Because she’s so young and is clearly confused, authorities don’t know if they can take her story as truth.
State prosecutor Lino Ginzalez Corona said, “Due to her young age, we don’t know if she is being entirely truthful.”
Because of the seriousness of the case, authorities are doing everything they can to track down the father.
“We are looking for the young man to get his story because she does not understand what has happened. This is a rape or child sex abuse case,” Jorge Villasenor, also of the state prosecutor’s office, said.
Dafne is reportedly doing fine after the C-section birth, although she may have physical problems later in life due to having a child at such a young age. And while it is shocking to most that a child could even become pregnant, it’s not unheard of. In 2010, a 9-year old Chinese girl gave birth to a baby boy. A legal representative was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying that in China, a person under the age of 14 does not have sexual rights, therefore proof of the child being sexually active is automatically considered to be rape.