Gujarat Teen, Rape Survivor, Allowed Abortion After 2 Courts Reject Plea

Gujarat Teen, Rape Survivor, Allowed Abortion After 2 Courts Reject Plea
AHMEDABAD:  The team of doctors which examined a 14-year-old girl from Gujarat – who became pregnant after being raped – has decided that only a medical termination of pregnancy can save her life.The abortion will be held at 10 am on Friday at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

No further go-ahead will be required from the Supreme Court, which gave its clearance on Tuesday, leaving the final decision to the team of doctors.

The panel, comprising four gynaecologists and a clinical psychologist, had examined the girl on Thursday as per the court’s order.

One of the doctors, Riddhi Shukla, who had examined her before, said in her report that girl was “psychologically devastated” and “physically too weak to deliver a child” and pregnancy will pose a “serious threat to her life”.

On basis of the report, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday that the girl could have an abortion if the doctors thought it necessary. In the process, the top court overruled the decision of two Gujarat courts and bypassed the abortion laws they had cited – which disallows abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

In this case, the girl was in the 24th week of her pregnancy when the case was heard in the high court on July 25.

But Dr MM Prabhakar, who was one of the experts who examined the girl on Thursday, said the procedure could be conducted successfully.

The girl had become pregnant in February after she was raped allegedly by a doctor to whom she had gone for treatment of typhoid. Her family’s application for termination of the pregnancy was turned down by a lower court as well as the Gujarat High Court.

Calling it a difficult decision, Justice Abhilasha Kumari said, “Whatever be the circumstances in which the child was conceived, whatever the trauma of the young mother, the fact remains that the child is also not to blame for being conceived.”

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/gujarat-teen-rape-survivor-needs-abortion-decides-doctors-panel-1202154