NEW DELHI, July 28 (Xinhua) -- India's Supreme Court Friday rejected a 10-year-old rape victim's plea to abort her foetus.
A two-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, took the decision based on the assessment of doctors who said a medical termination was not safe for the girl or the foetus.
The girl, who was raped by her uncle, is 32 weeks pregnant. Indian law does not permit medical terminations after 20 weeks unless there is a threat to the mother's life.
The plea for abortion was filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of the girl by a lawyer after a lower court in the Indian city of Chandigarh had earlier rejected her petition for abortion.
The girl's pregnancy was discovered by doctors when her parents took her to a hospital for medical check-up after she complained of stomach pain.
The girl then narrated her ordeal to her parents and doctors, saying that her uncle had raped her over seven months.
Rapes of women, including minors, are on the rise in India, despite the government toughening laws against sexual assaults post 2012 fatal and brutal gangrape of a medical student in Delhi.
Four of the men who had raped the 23-year-old student on a moving bus were sentenced to death by the top court earlier this year while the main accused ended his life during trial.
The sixth accused, being a minor at the time of the crime, was let off after serving three years in a remand facility.
