14-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped denied an abortion by Indian High Court
Rejecting the application for the abortion, the judge said the child 'is not to blame for being conceived'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A 14-year-old girl who became pregnant after she was raped has been denied an abortion by the Gujarat High Court in India.
The victim, who has not been named, is more than 24 weeks pregnant, and is currently studying in high school in the Sabarkantha district in north Gujarat, in the west of the country.
As reported by the Indian Express, The petition for the girl's abortion was brought by her father, but was rejected by Justice Abhilasha Kumari on 23 July, as she was more than 20 weeks pregnant, the legal limit for abortion.
Abortion in India is only permitted before 20 weeks, and only if the pregnancy would threaten the life of the mother, cause her grave physical or mental injury, or if the child would suffer serious disability if it was born.
While the judge did not grant the girl an abortion, she ordered the local authority to take care of her, and also ordered the government to pay 100,000 rupees (around £1,000) to her family as compensation.
The girl's father is a manual labourer, and the family's lawyer said they did not have enough money to properly take care of the child.
The father's petition alleged that the girl became pregnant after she was allegedly drugged and raped by a doctor she visited in February. She was reportedly threatened by the doctor, and did not speak about it until it was discovered that she was pregnant a couple of months later.
The doctor has since been arrested by police and is being held in custody.
Acknowledging the difficulty of the case, the judge said that despite the trauma of the girl's rape, the child "is also not to blame for being conceived."
"It did not ask to be born," she said. "The child is innocent, just like the victim, its mother."
A similar case occurred in the same court in April, when an abortion was denied to a 24-year-old woman, who became pregnant after she was gang raped.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments