SC seeks Centre, West Bengal's reply on woman's plea for abortion

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today sought responses from the Centre and the West Bengal government on a plea of a 23-week pregnant woman, seeking to abort her foetus suffering from serious abnormalities.

A vacation bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul issued notice to the ministry of health and family welfare and the West Bengal government on her plea challenging the constitutional validity of provisions of Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.

The bench said, "Having due regard to the urgency of the matter and since the petitioners are seeking the appointment of a panel of doctors at a government hospital in Kolkata to examine the state of health of the first petitioner as well as of the foetus, we deem it appropriate that the matter be listed on June 23, 2017."

Advocate Sneha Mukherjee, appearing for the woman and her husband who filed the plea, said that she need to abort her 23 -week foetus on the ground that it suffered from serious abnormalities which could be fatal to the health of mother.

She sought constitution of a medical board at a hospital in Kolkata to ascertain the health of the woman and the foetus.

The petitioner in her plea said that she had suffered immense mental and physical anguish after coming to know of the abnormalities in her 21st week of pregnancy.

"This petition challenges the constitutional validity of section 3(2)(b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (MTP) restricted to the ceiling of 20 weeks stipulated therein.

"This challenge is to the effect that the 20 weeks stipulation for a woman to avail of abortion services under section 3(2)(b) may have been reasonable when the section was enacted in 1971 but has ceased to be reasonable today where technology has advanced and it is perfectly safe for a woman to abort even up to the 26th week and thereafter," her plea said.

The housewife said that the determination of fetal abnormality in many cases can only be done after the 20th week and by keeping the ceiling artificially low, women who obtain reports of serious fetal abnormality after the 20th week have to suffer excruciating pain and agony because of the deliveries that they are forced to go through.

"The ceiling of 20 weeks is therefore arbitrary, harsh, discriminatory and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India," she said.

She claimed that during the examination of fetus on May 25, the abnormalities were detected including, a combination of four impairments in the heart.

"It was during a fetal echocardiography conducted on the petitioner on May 25, that it was first suspected that the fetus suffered from Tetrology of Fallot, a combination of four impairments in the heart. Further, a subsequent fetal echocardiography done on May 30, confirmed the same.

"However, Petitioner had crossed the 20 weeks mark and medical termination of pregnancy under the MTP Act restricts medical termination of pregnancy beyond 20 weeks," her plea said adding that the denial of her right to an abortion has caused her "extreme anguish" and has "forced her to continue her pregnancy while being aware that the fetus may not survive".