Girl, 15, gives birth after court rules doctors could perform C-section

A 15-year-old girl who is in council care has given birth after a High Court judge ruled that doctors could perform a caesarean section against her will.

Mr Justice Poole considered the girl’s case at an urgent hearing in the Family Division of the High Court earlier this week and heard that she was 35 weeks pregnant.

A lawyer involved in the case told the PA news agency that the girl has given birth, following a C-section, and said mother and child were both well.

Lawyers representing doctors treating the teenager told the judge that she had a “needle phobia”.

However, they said specialists had concerns about the health of the baby and felt that the “only option to ensure safe delivery” was a C-section.

Mr Justice Poole said the girl could not be identified in media reports of the case.

He also said the council responsible for the girl’s care could not be named in case that information gave a clue to her identity.

Bosses at the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, which is based in Darlington, have responsibility for her medical treatment and had asked the judge to decide what moves were in her best interests.

Barrister Vikram Sachdeva KC, who led the trust’s legal team, told the judge that the girl had a “significant psychiatric history” and had been “sexually exploited in the past”.

Mr Justice Poole concluded that a caesarean section was in the girl’s best interests.

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