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13-year-old set to give birth in Swiss village

Meritxell Mir
Meritxell Mir - [email protected]
13-year-old set to give birth in Swiss village

A 13-year-old girl in a village in Bern canton is expecting to give birth this April to a child fathered by her 14-year-old schoolmate.

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News of the teenager's pregnancy has spread like wildfire in Hindelbank, a village of 2,000 people, and has become the main topic of conversation at the local secondary school, newspaper 20 Minuten reports.

The 13-year-old girl was not known to be expecting a child until she was five months into her pregnancy, reported newspaper 20 Minuten.

“An abortion was out of question at that time,” a close friend of hers told the newspaper. She also explained the father-to-be had taken the news well and that the young couple were still together.

Hindelbank authorities are involved in the case, although it is not known yet who will take care of the child.

“We are examining the case according to the prevailing regulations and laws,” head of the social services in Hindelbank, Samuel Sieber, told 20 Minuten.

 “[This pregnancy] has been the number one topic for us,” said the president of Hindelbank’s municipal council, Claude Sonnen, to the Berner Zeitung. “We are not directly involved as authorities, but we are as people,” he added.

The board of directors of the secondary school attended by both future parents says it wants to do as much as possible to protect their well-being.

“We are making our contribution, so the two can still continue their educations in an orderly fashion for their remaining school years," the board wrote in a note to the Berner Zeitung.

The mother of the teenage girl, a 38-year-old German woman, had her second child in 2010. The baby boy will be both uncle and playmate to the newborn child.

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