India’s Supreme Court allows girl who was raped to have termination outside legal limits

A medical panel constituted by India’s Supreme Court has allowed a 14 year old rape victim in Gujarat, who is said to be at 25 weeks of pregnancy, to have a termination. In India termination is not usually allowed after 20 weeks.

On 28 July the Supreme Court over-ruled an earlier decision by the High Court and said that the surgery could go ahead provided that gynaecologists and psychologists were in favour of the procedure.1

In February the girl visited a doctor with symptoms of typhoid. She was allegedly raped by the doctor and became pregnant. The Supreme Court’s bench of justices said that “it would direct the authorities …