In fear of social stigma, Morocco mothers abandon their babies

A new report has revealed that single Moroccan mothers consider suicide for fear of society stigma because they have become pregnant outside marriage, sometimes because they have been raped.

Some 50,000 children are born out of wedlock every year in Morocco. Twenty-four babies are abandoned by their mothers every day in landfills, on the roadside or in the hospital immediately after birth.

Abandoning children, whether alive or dead, is a crime punishable by Moroccan criminal law.

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