In India, abortion proponents are upset that the Gujarat High Court has denied a father’s petition to allow his 14-year-old daughter from getting an abortion after rape. The girl is 24-weeks pregnant and was raped by a local doctor.
The Guardian reports that the judge involved in the case, Abhilasha Kumari, said it was a difficult decision but concluded that the unborn baby is innocent just like the victim.
He said, “Whatever be the circumstances in which the child was conceived, whatever the trauma of the young mother, the fact remains that the child is also not to blame for being conceived. It did not ask to be born. The child is innocent, just like the victim, its mother.”
The girl’s attorney, Pradip Bhate, was disappointed in the judge’s decision. He said, “The father of the victim is a laborer and does not have enough resources to take care of the child to be born. The parents are yet to decide if they want to approach higher forum.” However, the judge has ordered the government to take care of the girl and her family financially.
The pro-life decision by Judge Kumari is commendable considering how Indian culture sometimes treats women. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 93 women are being raped in India every day and most of these victims know their perpetrators. The NCRB also reports that the women are aged between 18 and 30 years (15,556) and 14 and 18 years (8,877). Then, after rape, many of these girls are forced to abort in order to cover up the crimes of their attackers.
For example, in February a teenage girl died after being forced to consume an abortifacient drug by a man named Monu. The Times of India reported that he had been sexually abusing her and she became pregnant. An unnamed police officer said the following about the girl’s death: “When Monu learnt that the girl had become pregnant, he allegedly started forcing her to undergo an abortion. On Friday, Monu compelled her to consume a pill that would cause an abortion. Soon after consuming the pill, the girl’s condition deteriorated and she collapsed. Monu abandoned her at the spot and fled.”
Later, she was spotted by locals who informed her parents, who rushed her to a nearby Community Health Centre from where she was later referred to Lala Lajpat Rai hospital. She died in the hospital on Sunday night during treatment.”
As LifeNews previously reported, abortion is always a tragedy and has devastating effects on all involved; but those effects are only heightened for teenagers since they’re making (or being forced into) such a grave decision at a critical time in their development.
In fact, one study found that teenage girls who had one or more abortions were ten times more likely to commit suicide than those who never aborted. And another study revealed that the rate of psychiatric hospitalization for teenagers who had abortions is three times higher than that of other teens.
LifeNews Note: File photo.
