The president of Chile sparked anger across the world by declaring that an 11-year old girl, whose pregnancy was caused by being repeatedly raped by her mother’s partner, is “mature” for wanting to give birth and in her words hold the baby “like a doll”.

Conservative billionaire President Sebastian Pinera supports Chile’s total ban on women’s reproductive rights, even in cases of rape or incest.  That ban was put in place during the murderous Pinochet dictatorship of the 1970s and ‘80s.

Pinera claims that a “mother's life” always comes first in Chile, and he has assigned his health minister to monitor the girl’s condition in the remote southern city of Puerto Montt.

In the TV interview that inspired President Pinera’s comments, the girl, whose identity was obscured, said, “It will be like having a doll in my arms.”

Experts say an 11-year-old girl is not physically or mentally prepared to have a baby, and her life is at risk.

“At that age the girl doesn't have a capacity of discernment; not even at age 14 would she have the mental and emotional capacity to discern this,” said Giorgio Agostini, a forensic psychologist with experience in child sex abuse cases.

“It's very likely that she is saying she wants to have the baby like a living doll. We've seen this in other investigations.”

Agostini continued, “So what the president is saying doesn't get close to the psychological truth of an 11-year-old-girl. It's a subjective view that is not based on any scientific reasoning to support it.”