A victim of sexual assault cannot be compelled to continue her unwanted pregnancy, the Bombay High Court has said while allowing a 12-year-old girl to abort her 28-week pregnancy despite an adverse report from medical experts.
If forced to give birth to a child against her wish, the court would be depriving her of the right to decide the "path of her life", it said.
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A medical board, after examining the girl, had opined that the process of termination of pregnancy would be highly risky, considering the girl's age and the stage of the growth of the fetus.
A Bench of Justices Nitin Sambre and Sachin Deshmukh, however, held in its June 17 order that abortion will have to be permitted.
