The Delhi High Court, on Tuesday, directed the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to constitute a medical board to examine the feasibility of termination of pregnancy of a woman, who approached the court alleging that the fetus she’s carrying suffers from ‘Nuchal Edema and Bilateral Cleft Lip and Palate’.
The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Rekha Palli was hearing the plea filed by a thirty-year-old woman through Advocate Sneha Mukherjee.
The Bench directed the Medical Superintendent of AIIMS to appoint a Medical Board of Doctors to examine the woman and give a report on the feasibility of undergoing medical termination of pregnancy.
The Bench posted the matter for September 13, 2021.
The petitioner has approached the Court seeking medical termination of her twenty weeks and five days old pregnancy based on an Ultrasound Examination Obstetrics Report, dated September 4, 2021, wherein it emerged that the fetus suffers from ‘nuchal edema and a bilateral cleft lip and palate’.
The petitioner requested for a medical termination of pregnancy. However, as she had crossed the stipulated twenty weeks mark, her request was denied.
The plea alleges that the petitioner’s physical and mental health has been put in serious risk because of the arbitrary 20-week limit stipulated under Section 3(2) (b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.
The plea points out that recently, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021, was enacted which increases the legally permissible gestational limit for seeking MTP from 20 weeks to 24 weeks. However, the Act has not been notified yet.
The plea reads thus:
“International Human Rights Standards demand that India reinterpret the MTP Act to ensure justice for the Petitioner and to protect future pregnant women and families from suffering the physical and mental pain of carrying a fetus that cannot survive.”
By enforcing the MTP Act, the Government has failed to protect the right to life by subjecting pregnant women carrying fetus with severe abnormalities to life-threatening or life altering conditions without a medical need, the plea adds.
It also “compels the Petitioner to suffer physical pain, bear the risk of excessive bleeding in the delivery process, and compromise her mental health due to the severe trauma of giving birth to an infant that would die immediately after delivery,” the plea adds further.