Fraudulent Fertilisation

“And the baby’s fa­ther? Who is it?”

“It’s a young lad the same age as Mabel. He doesn’t know what’s hap­pen­ing; my sis­ter has kept it from him. We can’t ask him for any­thing, he’s in no con­di­tion to face up to the sit­u­a­tion, he’s a child.”

Álvez spoke iron­i­cal­ly. “Yes, a child, but he wasn’t ashamed to act like a man when he went to bed with your sis­ter. Look what a dis­as­ter he caused.”

“That’s true doc­tor, you’re right...”

See­ing her lower her head, Álvez asked, “Do you have any idea how to solve this prob­lem? You don’t think I can help you, do you? I can tell you now I don’t do op­er­a­tions when the preg­nan­cy is so ad­vanced. And cer­tain­ly not on a thir­teen year-old girl. It’s very dan­ger­ous, you know that, don’t you? At this stage of my ca­reer I don’t want to take any risks. There’s no need, I want to live in peace. You shouldn’t have come, I can’t help you.”

Álvez put more and more pres­sure on her, he want­ed to see her beg, col­lapsed at his feet. He wait­ed for the girl’s an­swer. She was trem­bling, she couldn’t get a sin­gle word out. Fi­nal­ly, mum­bling, with her eyes full of tears, she im­plored:

“Doc­tor, please help me! I’ll pay you, I swear! I need you, you’re the only one who can do any­thing for my lit­tle sis­ter.”

The cry­ing made her stut­ter, her suf­fer­ing was for real. He knew it, he could read her like an open book. When he saw her con­quered, all her strength ex­haust­ed, he pre­pared to con­trol her. He would take ad­van­tage of this un­re­peat­able op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­vince her.

“It’s very risky and ex­pen­sive,” said Álvez. “Have you thought it through se­ri­ous­ly?”

“Yes doc­tor,” an­swered Ali­cia.

“I don’t be­lieve you,” said the doc­tor. “You haven’t con­sid­ered the con­se­quences. You can’t mess around with mi­nors, it’s reck­less. This mat­ter is be­yond you, you ought to admit it.”

“Don’t dash my hopes, doc­tor! I’ll work for years if nec­es­sary, I’ll pay what­ev­er it costs.”

He an­swered sar­don­ical­ly, “Am I to un­der­stand that you haven’t got money to pay for the op­er­a­tion ei­ther? That’s just what you need­ed. Do you take me for a hope­less ide­al­ist? Do you think I like com­mit­ting sui­cide every day? Please, dear! Why would I com­pro­mise my­self in such a risky sit­u­a­tion? I told you, I don’t do abor­tions when the preg­nan­cy is that ad­vanced, and def­i­nite­ly not for free. One of these op­er­a­tions costs three thou­sand dol­lars at the very least. Have you got the money?”

Ali­cia’s si­lence was a clear an­swer. She car­ried on cry­ing in­con­solably.

“Can you pay this price or not?”

“I’ve al­ready told you doc­tor, be­lieve me, I’ll work hard, I’ll be able to get the money to­geth­er. I’ll sell every­thing I’ve got, I’ll bor­row it, in the end I’ll see you right. Please, I im­plore you, make an ef­fort. Save my lit­tle sis­ter!”

As if to cor­ner her as much as pos­si­ble, Álvez said to her, “I’m sorry girl, this is not for me. Don’t worry, you’ll find other doc­tors, less de­mand­ing and cheap­er than me.”

“Doc­tor, my fam­i­ly is poor but hon­est... Give me time. You wouldn’t be­lieve how much I’ve traipsed all over the place. First I went to the hos­pi­tal to see Dr Quiroga. My cousin gave me a rec­om­men­da­tion. He treat­ed me like a crim­i­nal, he kicked me out. He said I had a lot of nerve, he shout­ed that no­body there did abor­tions. He also shout­ed that to do them was a se­ri­ous crime, that I was in­crim­i­nat­ing my­self, com­pro­mis­ing my sis­ter.”

Álvez in­ter­rupt­ed her with a smile to say, “Of course, of course, Quiroga doesn’t do abor­tions, he sends his pa­tients to me... His share is thir­ty per­cent, he never for­gets to ask me for it.”

Ali­cia kept quiet. “Every­thing’s a load of rub­bish”, she thought. But she mustn’t lose heart, Mabel need­ed her.

“What else hap­pened to you?” said Álvez.

“All sorts, doc­tor, it’s in­cred­i­ble, they don’t allow con­tra­cep­tives in the hos­pi­tal, coils are banned. The gov­ern­ment main­tains that they in­duce abor­tions. There was a hum­ble woman who didn’t want to have any more chil­dren, they chucked her out quick-sharp, she was cry­ing, she said that they’d hu­mil­i­at­ed her be­cause she was des­ti­tute.”

“That’s the re­al­i­ty,” said Álvez. “Those that don’t have eco­nom­ic re­sources have no way out, they can’t get pri­vate at­ten­tion, they’re con­demned be­cause of their pover­ty. That’s how it is, that woman wasn’t lying. This pol­i­cy of si­lence makes the pop­u­la­tion ever more ig­no­rant. The num­ber of un­want­ed preg­nan­cies grows in­ex­orably. When the prob­lem pre­sents it­self, it’s too late, there’s no so­lu­tion on offer.”

“It’s hor­ri­ble, doc­tor, I as­sure you I left the hos­pi­tal ter­ri­fied that they would re­port me to the po­lice. I’ve never felt so de­grad­ed.”

“Didn’t you visit other pri­vate doc­tors?”

“Yes, two of them. They said the same as you. The risk of surgery, Mabel’s age, the price...”

“A lot of money, eh?”

“Lots and lots, doc­tor, two thou­sand dol­lars cash.”

Nod­ding his head, he said, “It’s not that much, be­lieve you me, they of­fered you a knock­down price.”

She didn’t know what to say but then clar­i­fied, “I know the cost de­pends on many fac­tors, near my house there’s a mid­wife who doesn’t charge very much. Two women have died on her. One of them due to a haem­or­rhage, the other be­cause of an in­fec­tion. Mabel wouldn’t sur­vive, she’d be bound to bleed to death.”

Álvez nod­ded his ac­knowl­edg­ment.

“It’s true, they work with­out asep­sis, they’re ig­no­rant, in­ca­pable. It’s al­most prefer­able to be at­tend­ed by a butch­er.”

“I no longer know what to do doc­tor, I’m scared of see­ing a mid­wife, I don’t trust them.”

“You’re doing the right thing, dear. Nowa­days they’re just sim­ple nurs­es, they’re scared of their own shad­ow. The poor things who fall into their hands!”

Ali­cia was re­spect­ful­ly quiet for a mo­ment, then she con­tin­ued her story.

“You re­al­ize doc­tor, I must in­sist on see­ing ca­pa­ble pro­fes­sion­als, trust­wor­thy peo­ple. Only that way will I allow Mabel to have an abor­tion. She could die... I would never for­give my­self for that.”

“That’s good, dear, but I’m not the only doc­tor in this city. Why did you take a shine to me?”

“The oth­ers want cash up front, I haven’t got it yet, it’s a for­tune for me... I need time.”

“Time? How long do you need?”

“I don’t know doc­tor, seven or eight months. I’d sell some things, a few friends could help out. Mum’s got a gold ring and a cul­tured pearl neck­lace. They’re not worth much, but I’d be get­ting clos­er.”

“Look dear, noth­ing’s on HP in this ac­tiv­i­ty. Once the cri­sis is over every­body jumps ship. Go on telling me, what did the doc­tors say to you?”

“As I told you, Doc­tor Álvez, it was im­pos­si­ble to per­suade them. What’s more, even if I’d had the money, they de­mand­ed that mum and dad be pre­sent. That’s im­pos­si­ble, my fa­ther’s very ill, he’d die. You’re my last re­sort... I beg you. My lit­tle sis­ter is what I love most in this world, it tor­tures me to see how her preg­nan­cy is ad­vanc­ing. More and more each day... Take pity on us, give me time, I swear on my life that I’m going to pay. If you want, I’ll sign a doc­u­ment... But don’t leave me adrift, I beg you, doc­tor.”