MUMBAI, July 26, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A 28-year-old man was arrested by the Nehru Nagar police in the Kurla suburb of Mumbai for allegedly raping a teenager and later forcing her to abort their child. Police are also investigating the doctor who allegedly committed the abortion at his Saki Naka clinic.
The unnamed girl told police that the accused, Arjun Dhere, promised marriage after becoming intimate with her. When she discovered she was pregnant, Dhere is alleged to have backtracked on his promise and instead forcibly took her to an abortionist.
The situation came to light when the girl did not return home on Friday, July 20. Her parents filed a missing person report on Saturday, however she returned to her home that night and told her parents she had been forced to abort her pregnancy.
Police have charged Dhere under Sections 376 (rape), 315 (act done with intent to prevent child being born alive) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code, according to a Times of India report.
India’s Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act prohibits abortions after 20 weeks gestation, and are legal only when performed by an approved medical practitioner in a licensed abortion facility. Abortion in unmarried girls under the age of eighteen is legal only with the consent of a parent or guardian.
Police have not disclosed the name of the abortionist, however Dhananjay Bagayatkar, senior police inspector, issued a media statement saying, “We will conduct a medical examination on the victim at Nagpada police hospital. We will question Dhere about the abortion before registering a case against the doctor who performed the abortion in a private hospital in Saki Naka. We need to find out the extent of the doctor’s involvement in the case. We will check documents related to his registration.”
Pro-life advocates have long argued that legal or non-legal access to abortion has facilitated frequent cover ups of statutory rape.
The pro-life group Live Action has conducted and publicized numerous sting operations showing Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the US, agreeing to cover up the sexual abuse of minors.
The hidden camera videos give visual evidence that Planned Parenthood employees routinely participate in illegal activities such as willingness to aid and abet the sex trafficking of young girls, the skirting of parental consent laws, and citing unscientific and fabricated medical information to manipulate women to have abortions.
Abby Johnson, the former director of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility turned pro-life advocate, who now works with the Live Action team, said that the alarming incidents revealed by Live Action’s undercover investigations are not isolated incidents.