Abortion process of the 14 year old rape victim begins, to take 24 to 36 hours for completion

Ahmedabad

After the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court giving unprecedented permission of abortion to a pregnant 14 year old rape victim of Gujarat, the process to terminate the pregnancy begin in the civil hospital here today and is likely to take 24 to 36 hours for completion as it was not being done through surgery but with the help of medication, Superintendent of the hospital M M Prabhakar said.

‘The process has begun at around 9 am and would take 24 to 36 hours for completion. We have started giving her drugs for the purpose. A five member team of doctors including three gynecologists and a psychologist deputed by the honourable apex court had given nod to the process. We would also be doing the DNA test of the foetus as per the court’s direction. This is probably to ascertain the father of the aborted one and help in the trial of the accused,’ Mr. Prabhakar said.

The class 10 student of Prantij in Sabarkantha district was allegedly raped by a local doctor to whom she had gone for treatment of typhoid earlier this year. He had administered sedatives to her to commit the crime. She was detected with pregnancy only after passage of 20 weeks, the prescribed upper limit for permission of abortion under the the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.

A lower court and Gujarat high court had refused to give her permission to get rid of the pregnancy citing the provisions of the above law. However on the appeal of the victim’s father, a bicycle mechanic, the apex court asked the team of doctors to assess the situation and later granted permission in a historic judgment. She was now pregnant beyond 25 weeks.

Earlier in April, the High Court had also rejected the abortion plea of a Botad rape victim, who eventually gave birth to a boy this month at a government hospital in Bhavnagar