Friday march 3, 2017 - 12:06.m.
Judit Peña
jupena@elsiglo.com
Girls 15 to 19 years old top the list of pregnant women by older
CRIME
Despite the fact that having sexual relations with minors is a crime punished with prison sentences ranging from 2 to 15 years in prison, in Panama this seems to matter very little to the men who have left pregnant to 6 thousand 789 young women.
According to figures from the National Institute of Censuses and Statistics (INEC) of the Comptroller General of the Republic, during the 2015, a 603 girls under 15 became pregnant; of these cases, 21% (i.e. 126) was the product of a sexual relationship with an adult, and six were with men that were over 40 years of age.
Additional to this, the figures reveal that a thickness of 6 thousand 663 young women 15 to 19 years who gave birth were also pregnant by adults, in their majority (57%) men aged 20 to 24 years of age.
Although it may seem incredible, there were 175 pregnancies caused by sexual contact with men from 40 to 60 years and more.
Of the total of these live births, sentences, 303 were within the marriage.
Despite the alarming figures, the Public Ministry has not revealed how many adults have been convicted of sexual offenses against minors.
Facing this situation, the exdiputada and leader of the civil society Teresita Yaniz de Arias reiterated that the figures cold of the authorities do not resolve the problem, because it does not give an account of the number of sex offenders who were convicted. Ensured that all adults embarazaron to under 14 years of age are rapists and that many times they maintain a close bond with the victim (father, uncle, brother, cousin).
‘There is No excuse to not stop them, because the crime is clearly documented with the pregnancy of a minor', she said.
He asked the health authorities and physicians caring for the infants to make reports to the MP for conviction.
He stressed that the body of a girl of 10 to 17 years old is not prepared to give birth to a child.
Criminal Code Article 173:
Who, through a condition of advantage, to gain sexual with a person of fourteen years and under the age of eighteen, though without such consent, will be punished with a prison term of two to four years. The penalty will be increased from one-third to one-half of the maximum: If the victim becomes pregnant or suffer spread of any sexually transmitted disease.
