On Monday, the Supreme Court in India denied a woman’s request to terminate her 26-week pregnancy, ruling that there was no imminent danger to the mother’s life and no evidence of a foetal defect.
“Pregnancy is 26 weeks and 5 days. Allowing termination of pregnancy will be a violation of Sections 3 and 5 of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act as there is no immediate danger to the mother, and this is not a case of foetal abnormality,” Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud remarked. “We cannot stop the heartbeat.”
Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, the Supreme Court bench (which also included Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra) ruled that enabling the petitioner to proceed with an abortion would be illegal.
Married women, certain groups of women (such as survivors of rape), and other vulnerable women (such as those who are physically or mentally impaired, or who are under the age of 18) have until 24 weeks into their pregnancies to request an abortion under the MTP Act.
After arguing that she was suffering from postpartum depression and could not emotionally or financially support a third child, the Supreme Court allowed the woman to undergo a medical termination of her pregnancy on October 9.
However, the federal government filed a separate plea to reverse this ruling, citing the advise of a panel of experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) against having an abortion at such a late stage.
“The child is ready to be born. It won’t be right to abort because the foetus shows signs of life. The order to abort must be recalled,” Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, had said.
On October 11, a two-judge bench of the top court issued a split judgement, with one judge expressing her disinclination to allow abortion and the other insisting that the woman’s decision “must be respected.”
However, Justice B.V. Nagarathna said the court should respect the decision of the woman who remains determined to abort the pregnancy, while Justice Hima Kohli pondered which court will say “stop the heartbeat of a foetus” and made it clear she was not inclined to permit the 27-year-old woman to terminate her pregnancy.
On Thursday, a new three-judge bench appointed by the chief justice began considering the case. The Supreme Court’s most recent judgment was based on a report from AIIMS stating that the child is developing normally and that the mother is not in imminent danger.
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