A Moroccan doctor and his assistant were arrested Thursday while carrying out an illegal abortion for a 15-year-old, sparking protests in support of the medic.

The doctor, 71, and his assistant, 64, were arrested in a private clinic in the northern city of Meknes, police said.

The teenager and her mother, as well as a woman who accompanied them, were also questioned.

Abortion in Morocco is legal only if the pregnancy poses a danger to the health of the mother.

A woman who otherwise has an abortion can face a jail term of between six months to two years, while those carrying out the termination can face between one and five years behind bars.

"A 15-year-old girl who is trying to end a pregnancy in decent sanitary conditions... When will this masquerade end?" the feminist collective "Hors-la-Loi" protested on Facebook.

The group campaigns for the decriminalisation of abortion and the protection of individual freedoms in the North African nation.

"What do they want, for the 15-year-old girl to keep the child? Or for her mother to take her to see a charlatan? Or for her to end up committing suicide?" Narjis Benazzou, an activist from the collective, wrote on Twitter.

Some 600 to 800 clandestine abortions take place every day in Morocco, groups which campaign for its legalisation say, and some take place in dangerous unsanitary conditions.