Pregnant girl is 17: Minister

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Fatma Şahin. AA Photo

A girl thought to be 11 years old that was hospitalized last week in the eighth month of her pregnancy is actually 17, Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin told reporters.

Şahin said it was impossible for the girl to be 11 years old, NTV reported.

"From the photos I saw, and from what the mother of the girl told me, it's not an 11-year-old thing," Şahin said. "If she were, that would have been terrible, and unacceptable."

Şahin said problems like these frequently occurred in the eastern and southeastern parts of the country due to the late registrations of newborns. Registrations are sometimes done in groups, thus altering the ages of everyone else who was born beforehand, she added.

"She's very disturbed by all this," Şahin said, referring to the girl in question. "She told me that she was 17 years old, and that she had applied to court on account of her age. She had claimed then that she wasn't 11, but 17,” she added.

"She was married with the permission of her family since she was a minor, but the lack of an official marital bond is a very serious problem. We're speeding up the process to make sure they're officially married before the baby is born,” the minister said.