13-year-old rape survivor’s premature baby dies in 2 days

Recently you must have heard of a 13-year old rape survivor who was permitted to terminate her pregnancy the 32nd week. However, tragically the the girl delivered a baby that could only survive for 48 hours. According to reports by India Times, the boy was born at the J.J Hospital and the boy weighed 1.8 kg. Born pre mature, the boy was kept in the neonatal intensive care unit. Further according to reports all his organs were underdeveloped and since his lungs were underdeveloped too he faced severe breathing issues. The girl was a class 7 student. Since the section 3(2)(b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act prohibits abortion of a foetus after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Her parents had sought permission to abort the foetus.
According to reports, in August, the parents took her to a doctor as they were doubting her sudden “obesity” to be a result of a thyroid condition. However, a sonography then shocked her parents showing that she was 27 weeks pregnant. Until that moment, she had not informed the sexual assault to her parents. Supreme court permitted the termination of her pregnancy on the basis of the suggestion made by a medical board. Taking into consideration the health of the girl the Supreme Court sought for opinions from the medical expert who then said that even if the pregnancy was allowed to continue the baby would be pre-term and would require intensive neo-natal care and either way the ‘mother’ and the baby would be at grave risk. (Read: 10-year-old rape survivor not allowed to abort her 26-week-old foetus as Chandigarh court rejects plea)
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