The Bombay high court has denied permission to a 15-year-old rape survivor to abort her 28-week pregnancy. According to the doctors, if the baby is forcibly delivered at this stage, it would be born alive, and possibly with a deformity due to premature birth. 

On June 20, a division bench of Justices R V Ghuge and Y G Khobragade, sitting at the Aurangabad bench of HC said keeping baby’s future in mind, if a child is going to be born even with forcible delivery, then they might as well let the baby be born full-term.

A petition was being heard at the HC filed by the rape victim's mother seeking permission to abort the girl's 28-week pregnancy. As per the petition, the girl went missing in February this year. Three months later, she was found by the police with a man in Rajasthan. A case was lodged against the man under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

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After examining the girl, a medical board said even if the pregnancy termination proceedings are done, the baby would be born alive and would have to be admitted in a neonatal care unit and the girl’s life would also be at risk.

"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 high court said.

If the baby is well developed and delivered naturally as a full term baby, there would be no deformity and the chances of adoption would brighten, the HC said.

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The high court said that the girl can be kept either at a shelter home in Nashik which takes care of pregnant women or the government's shelter home for women in Aurangabad. It further added that after the baby is delivered, the girl will be at liberty to take a decision on whether to keep the baby or give the child up for adoption.