SUPREME COURT ALLOWS RAPE VICTIM TO ABORT 24-WEEK FOETUS

LANDMARK RULING In a first, court okays move on ground that pregnancy poses risk to life of rape victim

The Supreme Court allowed on Monday an alleged rape victim to terminate her 24-week pregnancy after doctors said the malformed foetus posed a danger to her life, an order that relaxes a 20-week legal restriction on abortions.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a rape victim to terminate a 24-week pregnancy after doctors said the malformed foetus posed a danger to her life, an order that relaxes a 20-week legal restriction on abortions.

This is the first time that a court has allowed the termination of a pregnancy that has exceeded the 20-week legal ceiling as mandated by law.

A bench headed by justice JS Khehar permitted the abortion after a board of seven doctors declared that the foetus was a danger to the 26-year-old woman’s physical and mental health.

The medical board confirmed the petitioner’s apprehension. The report held the foetus had congenital abnormalities, including cranial, intestinal and cardiac, which also posed grave danger to the life of the mother.

“We grant liberty to the petitioner and if she desires to terminate the pregnancy, she is permitted,” the bench said.

Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi while submitting the report told the court the medical termination of pregnancy act didn’t prohibit abortion if the foetus posed a severe risk to the mother’s life.

The court had on July 22 directed Mumbai’s KEM hospital to set up a panel of experts to examine the petitioner, a Maharashtra resident.

She had told the court that the foetus was diagnosed with anencephaly, a serious birth defect in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull but doctors refused her abortion as the pregnancy has gone beyond 20 weeks.

The court will continue to hear the woman’s challenge to the ceiling.

The pregnancy termination law allows a woman to abort but only after doctors confirm “it is necessary to save the mother’s life”. It, however, is silent on a remedy in case of an abnormal foetus.

The woman told the court that she was raped by her former fiancé who went back on his promise of marriage. She found out about the pregnancy after 20 weeks had elapsed. The petitioner requested the court to ask the government to direct hospitals to assign doctors for assessing and offering medical termination of pregnancy to survivors of sexual violence even beyond 20 weeks. Internationally, a woman can seek an abortion of abnormal foetus. However, each country has its own limit, which in most cases is more than 20 weeks. Switzerland, Great Britain and the Netherlands are the only countries to not have such a ceiling.