Delhi High Court declines abortion plea of 23-week-pregnancy
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New Delhi: Observing that medical termination of a pregnancy at 23 weeks is killing the fetus, the Delhi High Court on Friday declined an unmarried woman's plea to perform the procedure, PTI reported.
The high court said that the law guarantees time for unmarried pregnancies to perform medical termination from 20 weeks to 24 but not for consensual relationships.
The court further suggested that the petitioner be kept "somewhere safe" until her delivery, and she could give the child for abortion.
"We will ensure that the girl is kept somewhere safe and she can deliver and go. There is a big queue for adoption," observed the bench, comprising Chief Justice Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad. "We will not permit you to kill that child. (We are) very sorry. This virtually amounts to killing (the foetus)," the bench said.
The petitioner's counsel argued that medical termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks for instances of unmarried women was discriminatory in view of the relief being available to divorced women and certain other categories of women up to 24 weeks.
He said that the law permitted unmarried women to undergo medical termination of pregnancy up to 20 weeks, but the petitioner, who was in a consensual relationship, approached the high court at the present stage on account of being "ditched" by the partner and emphasised that the intent of the MTP Act is "safe abortion".
The lawyer turned down the court's suggestion to give the child to adoption, saying that his client did not wish to deliver the child.
The court had said that it was not forcing her to raise the child once it was born, and she would be taken care of till the delivery. "Your whereabouts will not be known to anyone. Deliver the baby, please come back... You ask the client. Everything will be looked after by the government of India or the Delhi government or some good hospital... I am also offering to pay," the court said.
During the hearing, the court said that it would refer the petitioner's case to AIIMS to seek a medical opinion in terms of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, but the central government counsel said that such an opinion could be sought under certain specified circumstances and the petitioner's case was not covered under them.