The baby of a 13-year-old rape victim has died two days after doctors delivered him despite a court order stating the pregnancy should be terminated.
Doctors in Mumbai delivered the baby by cesarean section after the girl won a court order to be allowed an abortion.
Having spent two days in a neonatal intensive care unit in the western city of Mumbai over the weekend, the baby passed away.
On Wednesday in a rare ruling the Supreme Court had allowed the girl to terminate the pregnancy in view of the ‘trauma she has suffered’
The teenager was 32 weeks pregnant, which is well beyond India’s 20-week legal limit after which terminations are only allowed where there is a danger to the life of the mother or the baby.
On Wednesday in a rare ruling the country’s top court allowed the girl to terminate the pregnancy in view of the ‘trauma she has suffered’.
But Nikhil Datar, a Mumbai-based doctor who had examined the girl earlier, said doctors took a call to save the foetus by performing a caesarean section on Friday.
The doctors claim this decision was in line with the Supreme Court order.
‘Terminating pregnancy as sought by the Supreme Court means discontinuing the pregnancy and not killing the foetus,’ Datar said.
‘The Court focused on mother’s health as she is a minor and after the termination we have to accept the consequences as they come.’
Before it died the baby was set to be put up for adoption, according to theBBC.
The girl, who cannot be named, was allegedly raped by her father’s colleague, who has been arrested.
The doctors claim the decision to deliver the premature foetus by cesarean section was in line with the Supreme Court order
In recent months courts have received a number of petitions from women seeking abortions where pregnancies had gone beyond 20 weeks.
Many of these come from young rape survivors and trafficking victims
Activists say the restriction should be extended to 24 weeks as victims of rape are often late to report their pregnancies.
India has a gruesome record of sexual assaults on minors, with 20,000 cases reported in 2015, according to government data.