The Delhi High Court on Tuesday held that the ultimate choice in the pregnancy cases involving fetal abnormalties is the mother and allowed 8 month pregnant women to undergo medical termination of pregnancy.
Case Brief
The petitioner is a 26 years old married woman, who is pregnant for 33 weeks and approached to the High court through advocates Prachi Nirwan, Pranjal Shekhar and Yaseen Siddiqui.The petitioner defined that she has undergone regular ultrasounds and no abnormality was reported. It was the first time on November 11 when the abnormality in the brain of the fetus was found. On November 14 another ultrasound was confirmed by the doctor. She approached the Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital. Her request qua the termination of her pregnancy on the premise that the said process shall require judicial intervention since the current gestational age of the Petitioner is beyond the permissible limits i.e. 24 weeks as per the Amended Act effective from September 24, 2021. It is submitted that the limitation as provided under the said Act i.e. 20/24 weeks is not applicable to the case of the Petitioner as attributed by Section 3(2B) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 since the fetus borne by the Petitioner carries substantial cerebral abnormalities, as a result of which grave mental injury is being caused to the Petitioner herein.
Decision by the court
Justice Singh said, “This right gives a woman the ultimate choice as to whether to give birth to the child that she has conceived. India is amongst the countries that recognise this choice of the woman in its law and has even expanded this right in recent times with amendments permitting the termination at an advanced stage under various circumstances”.
https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/delhi-high-court-medical-termination-of-pregnancy-215903
The court said that in Indian law, it is the woman who decides if she wants to give birth after conceiving or not. The court said that cases involving fetal abnormalities highlight the severe problem that women undergo while taking a decision to terminate a pregnancy.
The court directed that the petitioner is permitted to undergo the procedure for medical termination of pregnancy immediately at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital, or the Guru Teg Bahadur hospital or an approved medical facility of choice as per Section 4 under the supervision of a properly constituted medical team. Prior to undergoing the procedure for medical termination of pregnancy, the petitioner shall once again be informed of the procedure being undertaken and her informed consent for the same will be obtained. The court added that the petitioner shall undergo medical termination at her risk as to the consequences of the same. The medical board also wanted the neurologist to be there in the team for termination of pregnancy.
