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Supreme Court notice to Centre over abortion law

J. Venkatesan

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre on a petition seeking a direction to have a fresh look at the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 which allows abortion of foetus only up to 20 weeks when there is substantial risk of physical abnormalities if the child was born.

A Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam was hearing a special leave petition filed by Nikhil D. Datar against a Bombay High Court judgment refusing to interfere with the provision.

Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner submitted that the 1971 law prohibited termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks even if there was a fatal risk to the mother and the foetus.

But now with the advancement of technology, a pregnancy could be terminated even after 26 weeks if the foetus was found to have physical abnormalities.

He said in many Western countries abortion was permitted up to 28 weeks and the 1971 law had become obsolete.

The High Court in August 2008 rejected the plea of Mumbai couple Nikita and Haresh Mehta to terminate Nikita’s pregnancy even after the foetus was found to have a heart block in the 24th week. Later, she suffered a miscarriage.

Mumbai-based Dr. Nikhil Datar, who was one of the petitioners along with the couple, appealed against the High Court order, seeking an amendment to the MTP Act.

The SLP raised fundamental issues — the right of a woman to self-determination over her body and whether there ought to be any legal impediment at all to a woman’s right to an abortion and whether the State ought to interfere by way of legislation with such a fundamental personal decision, especially when a child was likely to undergo treatments, surgeries and might lead a subnormal life.

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