In two days, as many abortions have been ordered by the same Bench of the Supreme Court. On Thursday, the Supreme Court directed abortion of a 24-week foetus after noting an abnormal heart condition. The same Bench had on Wednesday ordered abortion of a 26-week foetus which had no skull and could not survive.
The Bench of Justices Sharad Arvind Bobe and l Nageswara Rao, the author of the two judgments, produced back to back orders after constituting a medical board and going by their opinion. On Thursday, the Court was confronted with the case of a 24-year-old lady from Maharashtra who was carrying a 24-week foetus.
She apprehended danger to her life on discovering that the baby growing in her womb was diagnosed with tricuspid and pulmonary atresia, a cardiac anomaly in the fetus. Doctors and eminent cardiologists who were consulted in the case said that in spite of surgeries, such children do not achieve normal oxygen level and would remain physically incapacitated. Even life span of such children is limited.
On Wednesday, the same bench dealt with a similar complex issue where a 26-week foetus was detected with Anencephaly, a defect that leaves foetal skull bones unformed and is both untreatable and certain to cause the infant’s death during or shortly after birth.