SC orders termination of 30-week pregnancy; ‘court cannot compel any woman… to complete’
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the medical termination of a 30-week pregnancy of a 17-year-old girl, saying courts cannot compel a woman, particularly a minor, to continue a pregnancy.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that the girl became pregnant while in a relationship with a local boy and sought to end the pregnancy on medical grounds.
The bench instructed Mumbai’s JJ Hospital to carry out the termination, ensuring that all necessary medical safeguards are followed.
Pregnancy was ‘illegitimate’
The court said it had considered the fact that the minor’s right to continue the pregnancy was not absolute, especially since the pregnancy was “illegitimate” as she herself was a minor and had become pregnant in an “unfortunate situation” arising from a relationship.
The bench said the issue was not whether the relationship was consensual or the result of sexual assault. It added: “What has to be considered in the instant case is the right of the minor child to continue a pregnancy which is ex-facie illegitimate in as much as she is a minor and has to face this unfortunate situation of having the pregnancy owing to a relationship that she had. The issue is not whether the relationship was consensual or whether it was a case of sexual assault. Ultimately, the fact is that the child to be is not legitimate and secondly, the mother to be of the child does not want to bear the child.”
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The court noted the hospital’s medical board report that there was no threat to the life of the child or the mother if the pregnancy were carried to full term.
“If the interest of the mother is to be taken note of, then her reproductive autonomy must be given sufficient emphasis. The court cannot compel any woman, much less a minor child, to complete her pregnancy if she is otherwise not intending to do so,” the bench said.
Justice Nagarathna acknowledged the difficult moral and legal questions involved, warning that if the court did not permit the termination, the girl might turn to quacks and illegal medical establishments, which would be unsafe.
While recognising that the birth of a child results in life, the bench said the decisive factor in this case was the minor’s clear and consistent unwillingness to continue the pregnancy.
‘Ultimately, she doesn’t want to continue’
“It is also difficult for us but there is no other way. Should we compel her to give birth to a child? Because the child which will be born is also ultimately going to be a life,” the bench observed.
“There is another question; if she can terminate the pregnancy at 24 weeks, then why not at 30 weeks? Ultimately, she doesn’t want to continue the pregnancy. Bottom line is she doesn’t want to give birth, that is the difficulty,” the court added.
The bench said that sometimes it takes time for women to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy, noting that terminations beyond the limits set by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act 1971 do occur and that doctors often refuse to perform them.
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“There are so many cases where termination takes place beyond what’s stipulated under the MTP Act (1971). And doctors say we won’t do it. Where will such people go? To quacks and unauthorised doctors. That will be dangerous,” it said.
Counsel for the Maharashtra government said medical reports indicated the baby would survive if born, and noted that the high court had suggested the child could be placed in an orphanage if the mother did not wish to keep it.
The Supreme Court said it would issue the operative part of the order for the benefit of the hospital, with the detailed order to follow.
(With PTI inputs)