HIV+ rape survivor can’t abort, SC tells Bihar to pay ₹3 lakh

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court asked the Bihar government on Tuesday to pay ₹3 lakh compensation to an HIV positive rape survivor, as it rejected the 26-week pregnant woman’s plea for abortion.

A court-appointed panel of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) advised against terminating the pregnancy, saying the procedure at such an advanced stage posed a risk to lives of the mother and her unborn child.

India has a 20-week legal ceiling on abortion except when there is a risk to mother’s life. The draft of the new medical termination of pregnancy bill allows abortion up to 24 weeks but it is yet to be introduced in Parliament.

The 35-year-old destitute woman sought an abortion saying the foetus was at risk of contracting the deadly infection.

A bench headed by justice Dipak Misra also asked doctors at AIIMS to draw up a treatment plan to ensure the baby didn’t contract the infection.

The plan would be followed by the doctors at the Indira Gandhi Institute for Medical Sciences in Patna, her hometown.

The court will on August 9, the next day of hearing, determine the compensation authorities in Bihar will pay to the woman for negligence.

She had sought an abortion when she was 17-week pregnant but authorities were lax in their response, the court was told.

On the request of the woman’s lawyer, Vrinda Grover, the court agreed to lay down guidelines to avoid repeat of a similar incident.

It even stayed the Patna High Court order that disallowed her to abort even though she was well within the ceiling period. The top court took strong exception to the Bihar government for opposing the plea in the high court.

Divorced and left to fend for herself on the streets of Patna, the woman moved the Supreme Court against the order.

The court on May 3 directed AIIMS to constitute a medical board to examine the woman. The woman, who lives in a shelter home in Patna, was flown to Delhi the next day.

The woman was not even aware of her pregnancy and the disease till the government authorities picked her up from the streets and admitted her to the shelter home on January 27.