HC ruling on 30-wk foetus abortion today

Mumbai: A 33-year-old woman from Nashik has approached the Bombay high court seeking permission to medically terminate her pregnancy. According to petition, the foetus has a rare developmental birth defect. The woman, who is in the 30th week of her pregnancy, already has a five-year-old son with Down’s Syndrome.  The HC is likely to pass its order on the petition on Friday.

The plea stated that she is already caring for a specially-abled child, and forcing her to continue with the present pregnancy would cause her physical and emotional trauma.

In the plea filed through advocate Kuldeep Nikam, the woman and her husband urged the court to grant them relief saying that giving birth to another child with special needs would also impose a financial burden upon them as the woman is a housewife and her husband runs a small business.

As per the plea, on September 11, the woman underwent a scan to check if the foetus had any developmental abnormalities, because of her first child. The report revealed that the foetus had ‘schizencephaly’, a rare developmental birth defect characterised by abnormal slits or clefts in the brain. Such clefts cause developmental delays, and delays in speech and language skills for a child. It can also cause seizures, and problems with brain-spinal cord communication, the plea said. “There is a substantial risk, that if the child is born, it will not be able to have a normal life,” the plea reads.

During a previous hearing, a bench of Justices A.S. Oka and M.S. Sonak had directed a panel of medical experts from

JJ hospital to assess the health of the woman and the foetus and recommend whether termination of the pregnancy at such a late stage could be permitted.