10-year-old rape victim gives birth after Supreme Court denied her abortion

A 10-year-old rape victim in India gave birth to a baby girl last month through cesarean after the Indian Supreme Court denied her permission to abort. The little girl is still not aware that she was pregnant since she was told the bulge was because she had a big stone in her stomach. An official told the BBC that the mother and the baby who is weighing 2.5kg, are doing fine.

The parents of the girl took her to the hospital after the 10-year-old complained of stomach aches and that is when the pregnancy was discovered (mid July 2017). The child alleges that her uncle had raped her several times in the past months. The uncle has already been arrested.

A local court in Chandigarh, India, turned down abortion for the 10-year-old-rape victim saying that it would have been “too risky” and that she was already too far into the pregnancy. The Supreme Court later refused to allow the abortion on similar grounds and said that the baby could be put up for adoption.

Correspondents from BBC said the parents of the 10-year-old girl did not want to look at the baby nor have anything to do with the newborn who was born prematurely at 35 weeks. An official said that the baby will be looked after by the child welfare committee until she is put up for adoption.

The Indian law does not allow abortion after 20 weeks unless doctors certify that the mother's life is in danger. However, the courts have received several petitions especially from child rape survivors to allow termination of pregnancies after 20 weeks. This is because most of the pregnancies are discovered late since the children are not aware that they are pregnant.