- Maria, a young Spanish doctor, works in a maternity hospital in the Ecuadorian rain forest. She is shocked about the premature pregnancies and the violence women in Ecuador have to face. She meets Mishell, an adolescent abused by her father, and Yanina, a woman who decides to perform a clandestine abortion. Maria discovers that behind unintended pregnancies often hides sexual violence.—Xiana Yago
- Dr. María Carnicer, a Spanish physician, works in a maternity hospital in the city of Francisco de Orellana in the Ecuadorian rainforest. She investigates about adolescent and unintended pregnancies. In her workplace, María observes that most of the women delivering a baby are teenagers. In Ecuador, 1 of every 5 adolescents is mother or father, that percentage being even higher in rural areas. One day, while María is helping on a childbirth, the mother suddenly starts crying. The woman is lying at the labor and delivery room, all covered in blood clots over the green surgical clothing. She has given birth to a healthy baby, but that doesn't seem to make her happy at all. The nurses around the woman try to comfort her, until she finally explains that her boyfriend wanted her to have an abortion. Back in the hospital, María interviews a nineteen year old girl who just gave birth to her third son the day before. While she breast-feeds her baby, she describes how she got her first pregnancy when she was sixteen and had to drop out from school. She argues that it's very difficult to get a job in the city when you don't have a school degree. Asked on whether she has had any abortions, she reacts in a visibly uncomfortable manner, since the issue is clearly in conflict with her mother's teachings. The mother always told her that a son would take care of her when she got old. Dayana is yet another adolescent mother. She lives with her father Euclides, who works as a bike driver and takes care both of her and her child. She got pregnant at sixteen years old and had to drop out from school. She had a boyfriend and never used contraceptives. Teachers usually give students information about STDs and the use of condoms, but boys don't put them on because they say it doesn't feel the same. Girls normally accept having sexual intercourse with no contraception, but whenever they become pregnant, their male counterpart usually refuses to take any responsibility and girls have to raise the children on their own. During the interview, Dayana says that she refuses to take the contraceptive pill anymore. Maria asks her why, but she avoids answering. Euclides reveals later the fact that Dayana is now pregnant of her second child.
Yanina lives in the same neighborhood as Dayana. She is forty, mother of two, and has to work hard in order to maintain her family, as she is married to a not very present husband. Yanina gets pregnant unintentionally, and she decides to have an abortion. However, since abortion is illegal in Ecuador, Yanina won't be able to purchase any abortion pills at the pharmacy, so she decides to use some traditional herbs for abortion. She buys them at Alfonso's herb shop, a traditional place in the Esmeraldas City Market. Alfonso explains about the herbs and methods from the ancient medicine that women in Ecuador have been using for decades. He learned this knowledge from his mother, and now he is the one who gives advice to women going to his shop seeking for help when they have an unintended pregnancy.
When Yanina starts bleeding at home, she is alone with her children. She is very frightened so decides to go to the hospital. María meets Yanina at the emergency room and she explains her situation to the doctor. María knows that women in Ecuador having an abortion are in danger of ending up in jail. Some doctors denounce these women to the police, exposing them to punishment and stigmatization. During a break at the cafeteria outside the hospital, Gina the obstetrician explains to María that, although abortion is illegal in the country, women find their way to have abortions using pills, plants and other alternative methods. Many doctors take advantage of this situation by carrying out abortions in underground clinics under poor hygienic conditions in exchange for huge amounts of money, and putting the women's health at risk.
While interviewing youngsters at comprehensive schools, María meets Mishell, a teenager who unexpectedly explains that her biological father sexually abused her when she was ten. Mishell wants her father to pay for what he did. A teacher from the same school recounts that there are many cases of sexual abuse, but very few of them get reported to the police, since there are few proofs beyond the abused girl's word, which is never taken seriously.
Maria meets Dayana's father, Euclides, for another interview. He drives his bike while she is sitting on front part of the vehicle during sunset. He feels closer to Maria and relates about his twelve year old granddaughter, who was sexually abused by her stepfather and got pregnant. The girl's mother didn't believe her and upheld that she got a belly because she was just eating too much. Maria is overwhelmed with so many stories about sexual violence and asks her friend Gina, the obstetrician, about her opinion. María wants to help Mishell to report the rape to the police, so Gina suggests that she should go and meet the girl's mother in order to ask her for details. Flor, Mishell's mother, makes a living selling fried fish on a street stall. She tells us that her ex-husband also abused another daughter, Mishell's older sister. She is afraid of reporting it to the authorities because she fears he might take revenge against her. However, Mishell and her mother Flor will go ahead. Flor wants Mishell and her sister to graduate from school and become independent women. Maria concludes her research with a better understanding of the processes of poverty, hidden violence and sexual abuse that hide beneath non-desired pregnancies and clandestine abortion in the Ecuadorian society.
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