Married Woman Moves Delhi HC For Termination of 32-week Pregnancy | What Law Says

New Delhi: A married woman filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking permission to medically terminate her 32-week pregnancy with an abnormal foetus. The High Court has sought a report from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Justice Sanjeev Narula has instructed the petitioner to appear before the AIIMS Medical Board tomorrow for medical examination. AIIMS been directed to file a report by July 13. The matter was listed on July 15 for the consideration of a medical report.

Delhi HC seeks Report from AIIMS

Petitioner has moved the Delhi High court for seeking permission for termination of 32 weeks pregnancy. The petitioner's counsel Amit Mishra submitted that the foetus has encountered abnormalities. 

It was revealed on July 4 after the petitioner underwent an ultrasound test. He also submitted that the petitioner took opinion from 4 others labs and results were the same. Since petitioner's pregnancy has reached the advanced stage, the bench directed AIIMS to file medical report by July 13.

The woman moved the Delhi High Court after she was advised by doctors to get the permission from the court for a medical termination of the pregnancy.

Earlier last week, the Delhi high court on Friday passed an order allowing a 31-year-old woman to undergo medical termination of her pregnancy of around 30 weeks after the foetus was found to have a neuro-developmental disorder.

The court order ruled that the law ensures women are not compelled to carry such pregnancies to term where the child would be born with severe abnormalities,

What does Law Says

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (MTP Act) was passed due to the progress made in the field of medical science with respect to safer abortions. In a historic move to provide universal access reproductive health services, India amended the MTP Act 1971 to further empower women by providing comprehensive abortion care to all.

The new Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act 2021 expands the access to safe and legal abortion services on therapeutic, eugenic, humanitarian and social grounds to ensure universal access to comprehensive care.

Married Woman Can Terminate her Pregnancy Upto 20 weeks 

Under the Act, a pregnancy may be terminated up to 20 weeks by a married woman in the case of failure of contraceptive method or device. It allows unmarried women to also terminate a pregnancy for this reason.

The Act allows abortion after 24 weeks only in cases where a Medical Board diagnoses substantial foetal abnormalities.This implies that for a case requiring abortion due to rape, that exceeds 24-weeks, the only recourse remains through a Writ Petition.