Doctor, midwife face up to 10 years in jail for conducting abortion without consent on raped teen girl

Aziz Özen - ISTANBUL

A gynecologist and a midwife in Istanbul are facing up to 10 years in prison for allegedly conducting an abortion on a 15-year-old girl, who had been raped dozens of times over a period of 15 months, without receiving her consent. 

An Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office demanded sentences varying from five to 10 years for a 65-year-old gynecologist, identified as İ.B., and a 61-year-old midwife, identified as N.Y., for conducting an abortion on a 2.5-month pregnant 15-year-old rape victim on grounds they had deceived the teenager. 

The then-31-year-old man, identified as S.B., who was determined to have raped the girl more than 50 times from September 2013 until December 2014, faces from 16.5 to 45 years in jail for holding the girl against her will, threatening, raping and forcing the teenaged girl to have an abortion without her consent, according to the indictment. 

S.B., who was married, started following the girl after school in Istanbul’s Pendik neighborhood and became friends with her. On her birthday, the teenager allegedly went to the man’s house and passed out after a drink. She woke up to learn she had been raped, however she refrained from telling anyone as the man had threatened to harm her family. 

She continued seeing the man and not objecting to the rapes out of fear but when she began to feel nauseous the man took her to a midwife, who determined the girl was pregnant and advised them to come back on another day when the girl had an empty stomach. 

İ.B. and the midwife allegedly deceived the teenager into getting an abortion by telling her she was not pregnant and they would pull out an accumulation of blood in her womb. 

The girl informed her father about the situation after the man’s wife called her and told her she knew what had happened.