A 10-year-old girl pregnant with the child of her rapist stepfather will undergo an abortion this week, doctors at the leading government hospital in this Haryana city said on Tuesday.
The decision follows a city court’s order asking doctors at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) to take a call on aborting the unwanted foetus that might have outgrown the 20-week legal ceiling for termination of pregnancy.
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act prohibits abortion after 20 weeks, except when the mother’s life is under risk.
DSP Pushpa Khatri said here on Tuesday that the matter had been referred to the local magistrate, who maintained that the PGIMS medical board was competent to decide on the MTP of the girl.
“The medical board has recommended the MTP of the girl and it will be carried out in a day or so,” the DSP said.
“The medical board took a humanistic approach and decided to abort,” said Ashok Chauhan, the medical superintendent at PGIMS.
She is too young to bear a child, and a full-term pregnancy and childbirth can put her life in grave danger, said doctors. “But abortion will be less risky. In delivery, there could be complications such as excessive bleeding and post-operative complications,” the doctor said.
District Child Welfare Committee chairman Raj Singh also confirmed that the MTP of the girl would be carried out, adding that psychological counseling of the girl was going on in order to bring her out of the mental trauma.
The 10-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her stepfather several times. The incident came to light last week when her mother, a migrant labourer, came to know that the girl was pregnant.
The girl was admitted to the PGIMS, while her step-father Suresh, a resident of Pota village in Sitamarhi district of Uttar Pradesh, has been arrested and sent to jail under judicial custody.
