Calcutta HC allows woman to terminate 24-week-old foetus
UPPER LIMIT OF LEGAL ABORTIONS IN MEDICAL ABORTION OF PREGANCY (AMENDMENT) BILL 2016 IS 20 WEEKS. HOWEVER, THE HEALTH MINISTRY IS WORKING ON A PROPOSAL TO RAISE THE CEILING TO 24 WEEKS
KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court Monday allowed a 32-year-old woman to terminate her 24-weekold foetus after she prayed for the step on grounds that the undeveloped brain that would have led to a deformed baby.
The directive came from a single bench after a medical board recommended the abortion.
“The medical board of SSKM has expressed its opinion in favour of abortion. Justice Tapabrat a Chakrabort y expressed concern about the health of the mother. He has also asked me to submit a report after the procedure is completed,” said Amitava Ghosh, advocate for the petitioner. The woman, a resident of Jodhpur Park area in south Kolkata, was referred to a medical board by justice Chakraborty on Friday.
Last week, she told a TV chan- nel that she took the painful decision after she was told by her doctors that the baby is likely to be born with grave abnormalities.
On Saturday, she faced the board at state-run Institute of Post-graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER) at the Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital. The medical board comprised general physician, a gynaecologist, a paediatrician and a neo-natal experts.
The upper limit of legal abor- tions in India’s Medical Termination of Pregancy (Amendment) Bill 2016 is 20 weeks. However, the health ministry is working on a proposal to raise the ceiling to 24 weeks, and in case of substantial foetal abnormalities, to do away with the upper limit for termination. The board was set up following a Supreme Court order directing states/uts to constitute permanent medical boards to examine cases referred to by the district, high and supreme courts for abortions beyond 20 weeks for immediate opinion.
The SC direction followed a spate of rape survivors and women carrying foetuses with abnormalities seeking legal directives to abort after the 20-week limit. On Friday, Ghosh submitted in court that an amniotic fluid test, which helps in the prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities, revealed that the baby’s brain had not matured and it was deteriorating.