“I Felt Like the World Was Falling Down on Me”

Introduction “I felt like the world was falling down on me…. I was going crazy, thinking I can’t have a kid. I’m not prepared, I’m not ready economically…. I’d always thought of myself as becoming a successful lawyer or psychologist. I was horrified that my plans would have to be put on hold.” —Samantha, on learning she was pregnant at age 17, April 2018 Lucely, 18, lives in a rural area in San Cristóbal province, on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. At age 16, she had an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. “Everything ended right there,” she said. Lucely—whose…

© Human Rights Watch - mardi 18 juin 2019