A 13-year-old rape victim has been allowed to have an abortion by the Indian Supreme Court, although she had crossed the 20-week legal limit for terminations, in the latest case of its kind in India.
"The Supreme Court accepted a report by medical experts and ordered immediate termination. The abortion will be done at Mumbai's JJ Hospital on Friday," said Sneha Mukherjee, the lawyer who filed the petition on behalf of the victim.
The girl from Mumbai alleged she was raped by her father's colleague, who has been arrested.
The court observed the mental trauma of the child carrying the pregnancy forward meant that she must be allowed to terminate the fetus, local media reported.
The girl is 31 weeks pregnant. Indian law prohibits medical termination of pregnancies after 20 weeks, except when the mother's life is at risk.
In August, a 10-year-old, also a rape survivor, gave birth to a baby girl in the northern city of Chandigarh. The case made headlines in India and abroad as the court had rejected her request for abortion saying that at over 30 weeks pregnant, she was too far into her pregnancy.
In May, a similar case was reported from northern India, where another 10-year-old rape survivor was allowed to abort.
