New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought Centre’s response on a PIL seeking direction to decriminalise abortions coupled with recognising woman’s right to termination of pregnancy and that her decision to terminate pregnancy of over 12 weeks but less then 20 weeks, should not be dependent on the medical opinion.
The court bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta issued notice to the Centre on a PIL seeking declaration that Section 3(2) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 that requires the opinion by doctors that the continuation of pregnancy would pose risk to the life, physical and mental health of the pregnant woman, being unconstitutional and violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
The petition by three women — Swati Agarwal, Garima Sekseria and Prachi Vats — say the present Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act amounts to hostile discrimination against single women, without any nexus to the object, which is to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
The PIL petitioners have also challenged the constitutional validity of the Explanation (2) to Section 3(2) of the MTP Act to the extent that it applies to married woman only.
The Explanation 2 to Section 3(2) of the MTP Act says, “Where any pregnancy occurs as a result of failure of any device or method used by any married woman or her husband for the purpose of limiting the number of children, the anguish caused by such unwanted pregnancy may be presumed to constitute a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman.”
Coupled with this, the PIL petitioners have also challenged the vires of Section 3(4) and Section 5 of the statute.
The Section 3(4) bars the termination of pregnancy of a woman, below the age of 18 years without the consent of her guardians.
Section 3(4) of the MTP Act says, “(4) (a) No pregnancy of a woman, who has not attained the age of eighteen years, or, who, having attained the age of eighteen years, is a lunatic, shall be terminated except with the consent in writing of her guardian.”
The PIL petitioners have also challenged Section 5 of the MTP Act that prohibits termination of pregnancy beyond 20 weeks only on the ground of immediate necessity of saving the life of the woman.
