The Bombay High Court on Thursday (September 5, 2024) permitted a 17-year-old sexual abuse survivor to continue her pregnancy noting that it was conscious of her reproductive freedom and right to choice.
Supporting the teenager girl’s change of decision who initially was seeking for an abortion and later decided to carry the pregnancy with an intention to marry the person who she had alleged for sexually abusing her, a Division Bench of Justices, A. S. Gadkari and Neela Gokhale noted, “We are conscious of the right of the petitioner (teenager) to reproductive freedom, her autonomy over the body and her right to choice. However, since she has also expressed her willingness and desire to continue with the pregnancy, she is fully entitled to do so.”
Respecting her decision to proceed with the pregnancy, the court also offered the teenager flexibility to medically terminate her 26-week pregnancy if she changes her mind again.
The matter came to light when the teenager was feeling unwell, was down with fever and her mother took her to a hospital for a check-up where they discovered her pregnancy. After interrogation, the girl had alleged that a 22-year-old man had sexually assaulted her and subsequently a case was registered against him. The teenager had moved the High Court with a petition to terminate her pregnancy but later she had change of hearts and submitted to the court that it was a consensual relationship, and she was not sexually abused by the man. She also expressed her intentions of marrying the man and raising the child with him.
No abnormalities were found with the foetus in her medical report that was done by the State-run J.J. Hospital but since she was a minor, the medical report raised concerns over her mental preparedness to deliver a child.
Published - September 06, 2024 11:44 am IST
