A 10-year-old rape survivor in India delivered a child on Thursday after the courts declined petitions filed on her behalf to allow an abortion.
The girl was allegedly raped by her uncle a number of times. She and her parents were unaware of her pregnancy and it was discovered only last month after she was taken to a hospital due to stomach ache.
She was in the seventh month of her pregnancy when it was discovered.
A lower court refused a petition filed by her parents to seek permission to abort the foetus on the grounds that it was too dangerous at such late stage of pregnancy.
India’s supreme court also turned down an appeal to seek an abortion.
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 of the India law permits terminating the foetus until 20 weeks of pregnancy. The foetus was in the 26th week when the petition was filed.
Doctors at Chandigarh’s Government Medical College and Hospital performed a 2-hour long surgery on the girl who delivered a baby girl. The doctors at the hospital had to defer the surgery for two days due to high blood pressure of the girl. She delivered a baby girl on Thursday morning around 9 am.
"The girl is doing fine; she is recovering. We expect she will be discharged early next week," Dr Dasari Harish told Reuters.
The girl’s parents told her that she was undergoing a surgery to remove a stone from her stomach. They have not informed her about the childbirth and want to give the baby for adoption.
In May this year, a court allowed another 10-year-old girl allegedly raped by her stepfather to undergo an abortion.
