SC Allows 14 Year-old Sexual Assault Survivor to Terminate 28-Week Pregnancy
The bench had asked the hospital's medical superintendent to form the medical board and submit its findings to the court on April 22, the next scheduled hearing date
In a momentous ruling on Monday, India’s Supreme Court permitted the termination of a 28-week pregnancy for a 14-year-old sexual assault victim, overturning the Bombay High Court’s previous decision. The panel, chaired by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, noted an impending threat to the girl’s life as indicated by the medical board at Sion Hospital, which advocated for medical termination of pregnancy.
On April 19, the Supreme Court ordered her medical checkup in response to her mother’s petition contesting the Bombay High Court’s judgment not to allow termination of the pregnancy due to its advanced stage.
It had requested a report from Mumbai’s Sion Hospital on the girl’s potential physical and psychological condition if she underwent medical termination of pregnancy or was advised against it.
The bench had asked the hospital’s medical superintendent to form the medical board and submit its findings to the court on April 22, the next scheduled hearing date.
The petitioner’s counsel told the court that the child is 28 weeks pregnant and is currently in Mumbai.
Aishwarya Bhati, Additional Solicitor General, represented the government in this matter.
The highest limit for termination of pregnancy under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act is 24 weeks for married women and those in specific categories, including rape survivors and other vulnerable women, such as the differently abled and minors.
On April 4, the Bombay High Court dismissed the girl’s mother’s petition based on the Medical Board’s report. The Medical Board determined that the victim’s pregnancy provided a circumstance in which termination would result in a live, viable preterm infant requiring neonatal critical care.
The Board’s report found no significant fetal abnormalities that warranted termination after 24 weeks.
The high court stated in its judgment that medical termination of pregnancy at this late gestational age carries the same risk and consequences as full-term birth.
The mother subsequently petitioned the Supreme Court, appealing the High Court’s decision, claiming that the medical opinion was prepared without evaluating her daughter.
The Supreme Court emphasized that the medical report on which the High Court based its decision did not address the impact of the pregnancy on the minor’s physical and mental health, as well as the circumstances surrounding the pregnancy, including alleged sexual assault. The Supreme Court directed the counsel of the state of Maharashtra to assist in transporting the girl and her mother to the hospital.
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