The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its verdict in a plea filed by a 20-year-old unmarried woman seeking to abort her pregnancy. The court observed that termination cannot be allowed for a completely viable foetus of 28 weeks.
The court added that the abortion was neither ethical nor justified as there was no abnormality in the foetus. A bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad informed the petitioner’s lawyer Amit Mishra that the woman have to induce the pregnancy.
The Delhi High Court’s remark follows a day after the Supreme Court refused a request by a woman to abort her 32-weeks pregnancy, mentioning mental trauma and depression after the death of her husband. Reportedly, the petitioner moved the High Court after the doctors refused to perform the procedure as her gestation period was over 24 weeks.
As per the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, women can undergo abortions legally up to 20 weeks of pregnancy following an opinion of a registered medical practitioner (RMP), and up to 24 weeks for certain women defined under MTP Rules. The Rule 3B(2) of MTP allows a woman to terminate her pregnancy between 20 and 24 weeks on account of a change in marital status through widowhood or divorce, mental anguish, rape, assault, and health complications, among other reasons.
Petitioner’s counsel on Thursday urged the court to permit her to terminate her pregnancy as she had not even informed her family about the pregnancy. Nonetheless, the judge said that the court could grant the woman liberty to approach All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for examination and decide the future course of treatment.
Justice Prasad told Advocate Amit Mishra that he is not impressed by the arguments. He asked the counsel to withdraw the petition with liberty to approach AIIMS for the purpose of examination and deciding future course of treatment.