A 13-year-old girl who said she was raped by her father's colleague has received permission from the Supreme Court of India to terminate her 32-week pregnancy, the BBC reported Wednesday.
The court had rejected a similar petition by a 10-year-old girl several weeks earlier, as India law does not allow abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy. The 13-year-old girl's pregnancy was detected at 27 weeks after her parents took her to her doctor for obesity treatments.
"This is a pathbreaking judgment by the Supreme Court," Nikhil Datar, the Mumbai-based gynecologist who discovered the pregnancy, told Reuters.
"I hope the Supreme Court now gives directions to the government to make amendments to India's abortion law."
Child sexual abuse is a major problem in India, with one in every two children reported as victims, according to a survey conducted by humanitarian aid organization World Vision India that surveyed 45,844 respondents. One in five respondents said they do not feel safe because of the fear of being sexually abused.
"Despite one in every two children being a victim of child sexual abuse, there continues to be a huge silence," World Vision India National Director Cherian Thomas said recently in India. "The magnitude of sexual violence against children is unknown."
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