(LifeSiteNews) — A high court in India has rejected a request to abort the child of a rape victim at 28 weeks’ gestation, citing the baby’s viability and certain risks for both the mother and child should an abortion be committed.
On Monday, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court ruled that the late-term abortion was unnecessary and dangerous, after doctors said the baby would likely be born alive either way and face higher probability of disability if an abortion were attempted. They also said that it would jeopardize the health of the 15-year-old mother, advocating for her to carry the child twelve more weeks.
The case was filed by the pregnant girl’s mother who requested permission for her daughter to abort the baby even though she was past the time limit for a legal abortion, according to The Economic Times. The girl had reportedly gone missing in February and police found her with a man three months later.
A medical board that examined the girl determined that her baby would be born alive even after an attempted abortion and recommended carrying to term for the safety of both.
“If in any case the child is going to be born and the natural delivery is just 12 weeks away, we are of the view that the health of the child and its physical and mental development need to be considered,” the court said, per The Economic Times.
“When a live child is going to be born even today, we might as well let the child be born after 12 weeks and under medical advice,” the court continued. “If later the petitioner desires to give away the child to an orphanage, she shall have the liberty to do so.”
The court also noted that the baby would be more likely to be adopted without physical or mental disabilities that would almost certainly come from an attempted abortion.
Since 1971, Indian law restricted abortion for any reason to fewer than 12 weeks’ gestation under the advice of one licensed medical professional. Abortion was legal up to 20 weeks if at least two doctors made a recommendation “formed in good faith” that carrying to term would risk the life or health of the mother or the baby faced “substantial risk” of serious disability.
In 2021, however, the law was amended to require only one doctor’s recommendation for abortion between 12 and 20 weeks and allows elective abortion up to 24 weeks for “therapeutic, eugenic, humanitarian and social” reasons, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews.
The same year, a high court rejected a woman’s appeal to abort her unborn baby at 31 weeks, citing the fact that she was under no threat of serious mental or physical impairment for continuing with the pregnancy.
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