A doctor from Xuyi county of Jiangsu province is being investigated by police over accusations of performing a failed abortion on a 17-year-old unmarried girl, and then helping her give away the baby.

According to local police, someone who claimed to be an employee at Xuyi Tongji Hospital reported that a doctor surnamed Min performed an abortion on a young girl who was about eight months pregnant in April. The abortion was unsuccessful and a healthy baby girl was born. The anonymous caller also claimed the doctor helped the girl sell the baby to another family.

The birth mother and doctor can be charged if they are found to have sold the baby for profit or deserted the baby.

According to regulations issued by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, those who are pregnant for more than 14 weeks have to obtain a certificate from the local government to go to a hospital for an abortion.

The police investigation has confirmed that doctor Min performed the operation without the certificate, however, at this point it seems she did not share in the 5,000 yuan (US$770) obtained from the family who adopted the baby. Police told China Daily that the investigation is still continuing.

Wu Jianzhong, president of the hospital, said doctor Min now is under great pressure and does not want to talk to the media.

However, Wu told a different story from the whistleblower, saying doctor Min performed the operation only because the mother of the teenager implored her to, as she did not want anyone to know about her daughter's pregnancy.

"The girl got pregnant at school in Nanjing, and her mother took her to our hospital so that nobody would know. If they went to the government department to ask for the certificate, there would be a record and people might find out," Wu said. "Doctor Min actually performed the operation out of sympathy."

According to Wu, it was also the mother's request that the hospital help them find a family willing to adopt the infant girl.

"The girl's mother just wanted to give the baby away, as she thinks it brings shame and will be a burden for her daughter's future. The other family offered the 5,000 yuan in gratitude and for nursing fees, not really as a price."

Wu Qiudi, a doctor from the Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said in recent years more and more teenage girls come to hospitals to have abortions, which she thinks is a result of "lack of sex education in general and people's almost unanimous bias against unmarried pregnant girls."

Tang Hongxin, a Beijing-based lawyer at Yingke Law Firm, said there is no criminal law against performing abortions on a minor. The regulations ban pre-birth sex identification of fetuses and sex-selective abortions for non-medical purposes.