The Supreme Court on Thursday set out to examine whether a severe abnormality in foetus, that is life-threatening, can be a ground for the mother to terminate pregnancy. At present, the law in the country allows abortion of a foetus that is below 20 weeks of age or in a scenario where pregnancy will result in mother’s death.
The bench of Justices JS Khehar, Kurian Joseph and Arun Mishra found that the law did not consider abortion from the angle of possible risk to survival of foetus after it was confronted with a petition filed by a 23-year old alleged rape victim from Maharashtra. The petitioner submitted that the foetus in her womb suffered multiple disorders such as anencephaly where skull bones fail to develop and omphalocoel where the intestine remains outside the abdomen. Doctors, who examined the petitioner, reported grave risk to the survival of foetus but found helpless before law as the foetus had crossed 20 weeks.
Issuing notice to Centre through Attorney General and Maharashtra Government, the bench decided to examine the request of the petitioner’s counsel senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, who challenged the validity of the Act.
Gonsalves pointed out that technological advancement allows termination of pregnancy till upto 24th week without posing a risk to the mother. The petitioner came to know of the abnormality of foetus in June this year. Such abnormality in the brain can only be detected after 20 weeks of pregnancy, Gonsalves said, suggesting that the law fails to contemplate such a situation. For no reason, the mother has to suffer the pain and agony of delivering a foetus that has no chance to survive, he added.
The bench felt it necessary to seek the response of Centre after it was informed that the Government had drafted an amendment to the MTP Act by which it proposed to extend the ceiling on abortion of foetus from 20 weeks to 24 weeks in cases where the foetus has severe abnormality.
The judges asked Gonsalves, “Has any opinion been given by a Medical Board yet,” to which the answer was no. “We will hear the petition on Friday. We will ask the Centre and Maharashtra governments for a report from the Medical Board.”