Bombay HC allows woman to abort abnormal foetus

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday allowed a woman to medically terminate her 25-week foetus with neurological and skeletal issues. The court said that the pregnancy would harm the mother’s life and it was doubtful if the baby would be able to live longer if it were allowed to survive.

The 28-year-old mother had approached the court after multiple fatal abnormalities were found in the sonography report at the completion of 22 weeks. She had to approach the court as under the law, abortions are prohibited after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Last week, a division bench of Justices S.M. Kemkar and G.S. Kulkarni had directed doctors of the state-run J.J. Hospital to examine the woman and submit a report, which was received by the court on Monday. In the report, the doctors had come to a conclusion that there were serious deformities in the foetus and continuing with the pregnancy would have caused harm to the mother.

“We went through the report, which after the examination of the petitioner had concluded that there were multiple serious neurological and skeletal abnormalities in the foetus,” said Justice Kemkar.

It seems from the report that if the pregnancy is continued, the baby would have a limited life and may not even grow into an adult, he added.

The court then allowed her to undergo the medical termination of the foetus and directed J.J. Hospital to perform the procedure on Tuesday.

The court also asked the government if they have formed the medical committees and guidelines for a permanent mechanism to terminate pregnancies that had crossed 20 weeks, in exceptional cases involving rape survivors and women with an abnormal foetus.

The lawyer representing the Union government informed the court that the government has instructed all state governments to set up district level committees and mandated by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.