SC notice to govt on abortion deadline

Source:- timesofindia.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: Delay in amending the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act to provide women a wider window to abort terminally ill fetuses is forcing many to move the Supreme Court for permission to end their pregnancies that are beyond the legally permissible termination period of 20 weeks.

The SC on Wednesday sought the Centre’s response to a petition by a Kolkata-based pregnant woman challenging the validity of Section 3 of the MTP Act, 1971, which says pregnancy cannot be terminated after 20 weeks.

A bill of 2014, pending in Parliament, proposes to extend the legally permissible period for termination of pregnancy to 24 weeks. In the last five years, the SC has dealt with several requests similar to that of the petitioner, who also sought permission to terminate her 23-week-old fetus which has a congenital defect. The SC has permitted most women with abnormalities in their over 20-week pregnancies to terminate.

Taking note of the distress plea of the petitioner, Sarmishtha Chakraborty, a vacation bench of Justices Dhananjay Y Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul sought response from the West Bengal government by Friday, when it will hear her plea and grounds for seeking permission to terminate her pregnancy.

She said the congenital illness was detected on May 25 when the fetus was more than 20 weeks old. The illness was confirmed a week later.

Chakraborty’s counsel Sneha Mukherjee attached a certificate from renowned cardiac surgeon and Padma Bhushan awardee Dr Devi Shetty to seek permission for the abortion. Out of the 26 million births that occur in India every year, approximately 2-3% had severe congenital or chromosomal abnormality, Mukherjee said.

The court asked the state government to suggest a panel of doctors from government hospitals in Kolkata who could examine the health of the woman and her fetus at a short notice and give a report to the court suggesting possibility and advisability of termination of pregnancy.

The petitioner said, “Present interpretation by government hospitals and practitioners is that abortion services can only be provided after 20 weeks in circumstances where, if the abortion is not done, the woman would surely die. This Section is unconstitutional firstly, because it does not provide for several fetal abnormalities discovered after 20 weeks and, secondly, it does not recognise the physical and mental health and well-being of the woman as part of the expression ‘life’. The physical and mental trauma involved in delivering a fetus with severe abnormalities is at present not considered a ground enough for abortion post-20 weeks pregnancy under Section 5 of the Act.”

Experts have informed the SC from time to time that many congenital illnesses and defects of a foetus could get detected as late as 18-20 weeks, leaving the woman and her partner with very little time to decide whether to terminate the pregnancy or go ahead with it.