Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on October 13 said India’s abortion law was liberal, pro-choice and far ahead of other countries while hearing the case of a married woman who wants to medically terminate her 26-week pregnancy.
“There is no doubt that our law is far ahead of other countries. We will not have a Roe versus Wade situation here. Our law is liberal and pro-choice,” Chief Justice Chandrachud observed in court.
The Roe versus Wade saw the US Supreme Court rule that the country’s Constitution generally protected the right to abortion.
The remarks by Chief Justice Chandrachud was in reference to submissions led by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati that the provisions in the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act allowed women to opt for abortion even after the 24-week limit if a board of doctors agree that the continuation of pregnancy was a risk to her life or if a substantial anonymity was medically detected in the foetus.
However, Ms. Bhati had said that in this case, the woman was married. This was her third pregnancy. Doctors had pointed to a “viable baby” in case she opted to carry the pregnancy to its full term.
The woman’s counsel however submitted and produced medical prescriptions allegedly showing that she had been suffering from postpartum psychosis from October last year, shortly after her second pregnancy. He said the medicines she was having to treat her illness were not conducive to her pregnancy.
The court referred the prescriptions to the scrutiny of an AIIMS medical board. The Bench asked the board to undertake an independent evaluation as to whether alternate medication “consistent with her pregnancy was available so as to neither jeopardise the well-being of the woman or the foetus”.
The court had also asked the board for a report on the status of foetus. It listed the case on October 16.
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