Court bars abortion for 10-year-old girl
Parents found out their daughter became pregnant after she was raped several times by her uncle
Acourt in India on Tuesday ordered a 10-year-old girl whose parents say she was raped and impregnated by her uncle to carry her foetus to term, ruling she is too young and her pregnancy too advanced to have an abortion.
The girl, who has not been identified, is six months pregnant and sought medical attention after her maternal uncle allegedly raped her several times, CBS News reported.
The district court in the northern city of Chandigarh based its decision on an opinion by a panel of doctors from the city’s Government Medical College and Hospital, where the girl was examined, according to the hospital’s medical superintendent. “If you abort then the risk to life is greater,” the superintendent told The Washington Post in a brief phone interview on Wednesday.
A 1970s law in India known as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act bars abortions beyond 20 weeks, though courts have made exceptions if the foetus is not viable or if the mother’s life is at risk.
According to CBS, the hospital’s eight-member panel determined that the foetus was viable and could survive even if it was delivered immediately. CBS quoted an unnamed senior doctor on the panel who said abortion was “not an option at this stage.”
The hospital told the Times of India on Tuesday: “The victim is six months pregnant, as revealed by her ultrasound reports. We have submitted our medical advice to the court regarding termination of the foetus.”
The girl’s parents found out their daughter was pregnant after she complained of stomach pains, according to the Indian Express. She later reportedly told her mother that her uncle had raped her a half-dozen times when he visited the family home. The uncle was arrested and the parents petitioned the court for an abortion, the Indian Express reported.
Doctors say it’s biologically possible for a girl to become pregnant as soon as she begins ovulating, though rare for a 10 year old. By and large, medical experts agree that carrying and delivering a baby at age 15 or younger can come with lifethreatening complications, including anaemia, high blood pressure and haemorrhaging.
Bones not fully developed
On top of that, pelvic bones do not fully develop until women reach their late teens. Before that point vaginal births and full-term pregnancies are dangerous, and even caesarean sections present significant risks, they say. Such problems, along with complications from unsafe abortions, were the top cause of death among female adolescents in 2015, according to the World Health Organisation.
Umesh Jindal, a gynecologist from the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, said she has never encountered a pregnant patient as young as the girl in Chandigarh. Her youngest, she said, was 13.
“If legal permission is granted treating it as an exceptional case, it’s better to terminate the pregnancy,” Jindal told the Times of India.
Puneet Bedi, a Delhi-based gynecologist, told the Indian news site The Quint that the psychological effects of giving birth at such a young age outweighed the risk of abortion.
“An abortion needs to be done immediately,” Bedi said. “Yes, there are risks and abortion at this stage is tough, but for the girl who is still developing, the scars will be many.”