The Australian Government will move a pregnant rape victim from Nauru to Australia for medical treatment if doctors advise it, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says.

Lawyers acting for the 23-year-old Somali refugee allege her pregnancy was the result of a "horrific" sexual assault in July and she is trying to reach Australia to get an abortion.

The woman's case was first raised as part of a story on the ABC's 7.30 program last month. She is not being named in order to protect her identity.

So far the Australian Government has blocked the request but the Immigration Minister was questioned about her plight on Friday.

"I don't want to comment in relation to the individual cases," Mr Dutton told reporters in Canberra.

"We make judgments based on the medical advice. If people need to come to our country for it, they will. That has been the past practice, it is the current practice, and it will continue into the future."

Mr Dutton said there were clear-cut guidelines he would follow in approving the movement of a refugee from Nauru for medical help.

"There hasn't been a case where the doctors have said to me that this person needs to come to Australia for medical assistance and we haven't provided that support," he said.

"If there was a complicated pregnancy, for example, or an assault where that person couldn't be given appropriate medical attention on Nauru, we bring those people back all the time.

"We have done that over a long period of time."

He also highlighted some challenges the Government faced in allowing a transfer to take place.

"In many cases there can be other medical issues which aren't related to the incidents and that may, for example, impact on the ability to transfer those people by air," he said.

The woman was originally held in the offshore detention centre on Nauru before being freed to resettle in the community.

'She's extremely scared and vulnerable'

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has stressed people placed in offshore detention will not be able to relocate to Australia permanently under any circumstances.

"Those who seek to come to Australia illegally on boats via people smuggling will not be resettled in Australia," Mr Turnbull said.

"Whether they are planning a voyage today, or whether they are in Nauru or Manus now."

Labor has accused the Government of acting like "robots with no hearts" for refusing to allow the woman to fly to Australia to receive treatment.

The woman's lawyer said her condition had deteriorated and she had lost about 10 kilograms since falling pregnant in July.

"She's currently unable to leave her small room, she's extremely scared and vulnerable and she's trying to deal with the fact that she's now pregnant after this vicious assault," her lawyer, George Newhouse, said earlier this week.

Mr Newhouse has written to the Prime Minister, Immigration Minister, Minister for Women and the secretary of the Immigration Department, Mike Pezzullo, calling for the woman to be moved to Australia urgently.

He said that according to the United Nations, it is illegal to have a pregnancy terminated in Nauru and that the Australian Government has a duty of care to act immediately.

The Government has also encouraged the woman to make a formal report to Nauruan police, but her lawyers said she saw that as fruitless and did not believe local officers would act on her allegations.