Mumbai: Four pregnant women from Maharashtra have approached the Supreme Court with appeals to abort their unborn foetus, who have been detected with life-threatening abnormalities. Out of the four, the SC granted permission to the 21-year-old Mumbai homemaker to abort her abnormal foetus.
The Mumbai woman is 21-week pregnant and her scans revealed the unborn child has fluid in the brain which is life threatening. The 21-year–old woman said, “ I thank the SC, for granting me the permission to abort my abnormal foetus. I was very much anxious and worried.”
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971 bars abortion if the foetus has crossed the 20-week mark. An exception to the law is made if a registered medical practitioner certifies to a court that the continued pregnancy is life-threatening for the mother or the baby.
“She is very young and we approached SC last week. The SC asked the petitioner to undergo an assessment in state-run J.J hospital. Based on that report today, SC passed the judgement that she can go for abortion.”
The second woman was visiting a municipal hospital where she learnt that her unborn child has a serious developmental defect called anencephaly (the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp that occurs during embryonic development).
The third, a resident of Satara, is in her 24th week of pregnancy and her unborn child has a severe form of cardiac impairment called pulmonary atresia while the fourth, aged 25, is in the 21st week of pregnancy and her unborn child too has been detected with anencephaly.
