Kerala: Rape victim gets nod to end over 20-week-old pregnancy

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has permitted a rape victim to abort  her more than 20-week-old foetus.    Relying on the apex order,  a single bench observed:  “The victim is not mentally prepared to deliver a child and such situation can cause innumerable mental stress and change of attitude in the normal life of the petitioner.” It asked a medical college in the state (not revealing the name of the hospital to protect the identity of the victim) to set up a medical board and go ahead with the abortion.

The petitioner  moved the court seeking permission to undergo medical termination of pregnancy after  a  government hospital and  a medical college refused to do  MTP saying the pregnancy period had  exceeded 20 weeks. According to the petitioner,  she had developed an intimacy with a person while she was working in a shop and she became pregnant throughsexual relationship with him after he promised to marry her. But he had cheated her.   

He married another woman on May 14, 2016  and she filed a  complaint. She  was admitted to a government hospital on  July 18 and was treated for three days and discharged on July 21. Though she requested for MTP, the hospital authorities told her to come  another day. Thereafter, again she was admitted as in- patient on August 1  and discharged two days later without conducting abortion. She went to the hospital on October 17 and was treated as out-patient. She,  therefore,  approached the medical college for MTP, but in vain.