A 10-year-old girl has given birth in southern Spain and authorities are evaluating whether to let her and her family retain custody of the baby, official said Tuesday. The baby was born last week in the city of Jerez de la Frontera. The 10-year old’s Romanian Gypsy mother says she’s delighted to have a new granddaughter and doesn’t understand why the birth has shocked anyone.
In comments published Wednesday, the woman told reporters that the baby’s father is a 13-year-old boy who is still lving in Romania and is no longer having sex or dating her 10-year old daughter. She added that the 10-year-old girl and her baby daughter plan to stay in Spain because the young couple separated, said the girl’s mother.
She also said she didn’t understand the attention the case was generating because she and her daughter are Romanian Gypsies, or Roma, and their custom is to allow girls to marry young even though that’s against the law in Romania.