An Argentinian man convicted of violence against women who was transferred into a women’s prison on the basis of his self-declared gender identity has raped and impregnated a female inmate while detained.
Gabriel Fernández had been accused of violence by multiple former partners before changing his legal sex to female and renaming himself Gabriela Nahir Fernández in 2018. Last week it was revealed how, while serving a sentence related to a domestic abuse conviction, Fernández raped a female inmate in the women’s prison in Córdoba where he is housed, resulting in the victim becoming pregnant.
Following news of the sexual abuse and pregnancy, which initially came to light in July, Fernández, who was being held in the women’s ward of the Bouwer detention center, was relocated to an isolated area. News outlet Infobae obtained court records pertaining to the investigation. According to journalist Patricia Blanco, the decision to remove Fernández from the general female inmate population was done to belatedly defend “the rights of 481 women [who] were violated or put at risk” by his presence there.
A panel of judges at the Córdoba Chamber of Accusation has since ordered Fernández to be isolated from female inmates, calling the situation a “paradox” in the context of the nation’s gender self-identification laws.
“Paradoxically, we find ourselves facing a scenario contrary to what was anticipated. That is, the accused, who perceives herself as a woman and belonging to the LGBTI group, is the one who turns her colleagues into victims or prey of her needs… taking advantage, of course, of the fact that she is housed in an establishment that would not be prepared for these exceptional cases, at least for the moment,” said the judges, referring to Fernández with feminine pronouns.
News of the sexual abuse prompted a response from Argentina’s Vice President, Victoria Villarruel. From her official account on X, the Villarruel strongly condemned gender identity ideology, and referred to its supporters as “degenerates.”
Esto es claro y simple, el que esté a favor de la ideología de género es un degenerado/a, y el que esté a favor de sexualizar a los niños es un pedófilo en potencia. Nuestro gobierno los va a combatir hasta que no nos quede sangre en el cuerpo. pic.twitter.com/L4gIGlYADo
— Victoria Villarruel (@VickyVillarruel) November 11, 2024
“This is clear and simple, anyone who is in favor of gender ideology is a degenerate, and anyone who is in favor of sexualizing children is a potential pedophile,” said Villarruel. “Our government will fight them until we have no blood left in our bodies.”
Fernández was first arrested in October of 2016 and sentenced to three years in prison on charges related to domestic abuse. In November 2018, the national prison service relocated him to the women’s area of Carcel de Bouwer, or Bouwer prison, after he declared that he identified as transgender.
By April of 2019, Fernández had already been accused of assaulting and threatening a female inmate. But despite this, he was granted parole within days of the incident report and released from prison.
At the end of the year, another investigation was opened into Fernández after his then-partner reported him to authorities for abuse. Fernández was not arrested, and the investigation was suspended. Similarly, another report was filed in 2022, and authorities failed to take action.
In November 2023, yet another police report was lodged against him, and he was arrested. Unlike his first arrest, however, Fernández was held in the women’s ward of Bouwer, where he and his victim shared a room in annex A of Penitentiary Establishment 3 (EP3).
The judges of the Córdoba Chamber of Accusation reviewed Fernández’s case history, noting that he had a long history of being convicted of crimes involving violence against women prior to identifying as transgender.
“In that capacity, she managed to be transferred to an establishment exclusively for women, where she committed several crimes linked to gender violence, all of her victims being, of course, women who were in a relationship with Fernández. Other partners during that period of freedom also denounced her for acts linked to gender violence,” the court held.
After “deploying a long series of crimes against a former female partner,” the court stated, Fernández “was detained and housed again in EP3, where the prison authorities had requested her transfer, due to the accumulation of numerous disciplinary sanctions.”
Last Tuesday, Fernández’s legal representative, Alfonsina Muñiz told Cadena 3 that the rape and pregnancy was not “a question of gender” and that “the same thing happens in the men’s prison.”
Muñiz also argued that the sexual abuse was not an example of “gender violence,” a term used in Argentina to describe male violence against women, because both parties consider themselves women.
Just one month before the rape is said to have occurred, protests erupted across Argentina following President Javier Milei’s announcement that the government would be dissolving the department responsible for addressing violence against women, or the Undersecretary of Protection against Gender Violence. The decision was made as part of broader austerity measures in an attempt to lift Argentina out of its economic crisis.
Outside of Argentina, multiple nations with strong gender self-identification policies have reported instances of trans-identified male criminals sexually assaulting female inmates after being transferred to a women’s prison.
Last summer, a trans-identified male inmate impregnated a female inmate at the Alicante Cumplimiento Penitentiary Center in the Fontcalent region of Spain. The inmate was originally detained in the men’s ward of the Alicante prison for repeated violent criminal convictions, including kidnapping and robbery.
While incarcerated, he began using a feminine name, one which is reported to have been adopted from a popular Spanish singer, and declared that he identified as a woman. He did not undergo surgery, and was not known to be on any hormone regimen whatsoever. Despite this, his request for a transfer into the women’s ward was approved by prison officials.
In 2022, in the US state of New Jersey, two female inmates were confirmed to have become pregnant after a man convicted of murder was relocated to the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women. This year, Reduxx learned that the criminal responsible had mentored another convicted killer on how to gain access to the women’s prison.