India: Court orders examination of pregnant 10-year-old rape victim in abortion plea

(Web Desk) - India’s top court has finally ordered doctors to examine a pregnant 10-year-old rape victim after her parents sought permission to get her an abortion.

According to the doctors, the child is 26 weeks pregnant but cannot deliver the baby as her body is not fully developed, BBC reported.
Indian law does not allow termination after 20 weeks unless doctors confirm the mother s life is in danger.

Doctors who have already examined the girl found her pelvic bones had not fully developed because of her age and said the life of both mother and baby were at "very serious risk", lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava says in his petition.

The girl was allegedly was raped several times in the past seven months by her uncle, who has been arrested. Her pregnancy was only recently discovered when her parents took her to hospital after she complained of stomach pain.

She will be examined on Wednesday by Chandigarh s Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research. Its doctors will advise the Supreme Court on how much risk to her life she faces by either carrying the baby to term or having an abortion.

A child abuse awareness campaign in Hyderabad, India. Photo courtesy: AFP

Last week, a district court in the northern city of Chandigarh in Punjab turned down her parents  petition to allow the child to abort.
India introduced a strict law against abortion to fight the gender ratio gap which has resulted from a deep-seated cultural preference for sons.

But in recent years, Indian courts have been inundated with petitions, many from child rape survivors, wanting to terminate pregnancies after 20 weeks.

According to the BBC, in most such cases, the pregnancy is not even discovered until after the 20-week period is over because the children are themselves unaware of their condition.

This is not the first time a situation like this has come to light. In May, a court in Haryana state asked medical experts to take a call on a similar plea and a panel of doctors decided to carry out the termination.