The Supreme Court on Friday said that legally permissible period of 20 weeks for allowing a pregnant lady to abort must be stretched to allow women to abort terminally ill fetuses beyond that period prescribed under Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act. The next hearing in the matter is scheduled for June 29.
In its previous hearing, the apex Court had sought answers from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the West Bengal government on the Kolkata-based lady’s plea challenging the constitutional validity of the provisions of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.
A vacation bench of justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul directed the medical board to submit the report by June 29 after ascertaining the health of the mother and the foetus.
During the hearing, the counsel for the West Bengal government said it has been decided to constitute a team of seven doctors to ascertain the medical condition.
The bench also noted a report of a doctor in which it was said that a child born with such serious abnormalities may not survive even the first surgery.
The woman and her husband have approached the apex court seeking permission to abort their 24-week foetus on the grounds that it suffers from serious abnormalities which could be fatal to the health of the mother.
The apex court had on June 21 sought responses from the Centre and the West Bengal government on the plea challenging the constitutional validity of provisions of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.
In a similar situation that surfaced in Mumbai, a 21-year-old woman, identified as Mrs. X in a writ petition, pleaded to the court to allow her to terminate her foetus as it did not have kidneys and would be unviable.
“The petitioner found out in the 21st week of her pregnancy that the foetus doesn’t have kidneys. She had to undergo two scans before this could establish and the foetus has multiple anomalies,” she said in her petition.
The Supreme Court directed King Edward Memorial hospital in Mumbai to constitute a medical board to examine the pregnant woman who sought the court’s approval to abort her 23-week-old malformed foetus.
