Argentina Supreme Court OK’s sex slave's abortion
Published:Friday | October 12, 2012 | 9:09 AM
(AP) — Argentina's Supreme Court says the public health system must provide an abortion to a woman who was rescued from a prostitution ring.
The ruling comes after days of protests and finger-pointing in Buenos Aires, where the justice ministry is protecting the 32-year-old woman in a refuge for freed sex slaves.
Though the woman had been kidnapped and forced into prostitution, a judge had blocked the abortion, saying she had no proof the woman was raped.
Anti-abortion activists allegedly threatened the woman's life.
Argentina allows legal abortions in rape cases or to protect a woman's health.
However politicians, doctors and judges often continue to block them.
Women's health advocate Estela Diaz praised the ruling Friday, saying 80,000 Argentines a year end up hospitalized with complications after illegal abortions.
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