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Pregnant and trapped: Guatemala’s child sex abuse crisis

By kevodell on October 10, 2025 • ( 0 )

In late 2022, Anja Popp presented an episode of Unreported World which looked at teen pregnancies among Indigenous Maya as a result of rape and sexual assault. There is a silent crisis of abuse and child pregnancies robbing a generation of their youth.

The programme reveals the stories of the young indigenous girls forced into motherhood after being raped and sexually assaulted with isolated girls being particularly vulnerable, with no phone signal, and no neighbours. In 2020, an average of 13 girls aged 10-14 became pregnant through rape in Guatemala every day. The cries of these young girls go unheard, and the programme explores how the justice system appears to be failing these girls and learns that only three per cent of reported sexual violence cases are investigated. Some girls are abandoned by their family due to shame with a few pressured to live with their abusers. But there are a handful of people and organisations trying to make a difference and teach young girls to understand their bodies and resist the cycle of abuse.

The Observatorio en Salud Reproductiva – OSAR (The Reproductive Health Observatory) was set up by various bodies to in order to monitor and supervise the implementation of public policies related to reproductive health. It presents annual data on the numbers of teen pregnancies in Guatemala. In 2024, for example, 1,953 young girls between the ages of 10 and 14, became pregnant and 54,615 between the ages of 15 and 19. While these numbers were a reduction on the the previous two years, it is symptomatic of the abuse young women and girls continue to face in Guatemala. In 2025, up to August, the numbers recorded are 1,439 and 36,126 respectively. These figures only record those births that are registered and not the numbers of rapes and sexual assaults being carried out against young women and girls.

The Guatemalan TV channel, Canal Antigua, presented a short piece with Doctor Mirna Montenegro, the Director of OSAR, who explains the causes and consequences of pregnancy in girls and adolescents, highlighting that in 90% of girls who are victims of sexual violence, the aggressor is a close relative, a neighbour, an uncle, or a stepfather.

You can view the Unreported World programme here, Pregnant and trapped: Guatemala’s child sex abuse crisis | Unreported World.

You can find out more about OSAR and view the recorded data here, OSAR Guatemala – Observatorio en Salud Sexual y reproductiva.

You can watch the opinion piece on Canal Antigua here, Miles de niñas en Guatemala enfrentan embarazos forzados que interrumpen su desarrollo y educación.