Indonesian woman consumed pills to abort baby, say Penang police

BUKIT MERTAJAM, May 29 — An Indonesian factory worker, desperate to terminate her pregnancy, swallowed pills provided by her Bangladeshi boyfriend before she suffered a miscarriage in a toilet of workers’ hostel in Taman Belimbing, here on Sunday.

Seberang Perai Tengah district police chief ACP Shafee Abd Samad said in the 9.30am incident, the 20-year-old woman had given birth to a stillborn 18-week-old fully formed foetus, a girl, weighing 700 grams.

“The woman was complaining of severe abdominal pain and the medical personnel found she had given birth to a stillborn as she had consumed pills earlier, to abort the baby,” he said in a statement here today.

He said the baby was taken to the Bukit Mertajam Hospital for post-mortem while the woman was admitted at the same hospital for further treatment.

The initial investigations found the woman took the pills given by her boyfriend as she wanted to abort the baby because they were not married, he said.

He said police were tracking down the boyfriend who was working at the same factory and believed that he was still in the state and the case was being investigated under Section 312 of the Penal Code.

The news went viral on social media today claiming that the couple had buried the baby, but police investigations found that the burial was carried out by the hospital after obtaining the woman’s consent. — Bernama