New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here to constitute a medical board to ascertain the physical condition of a woman and her 25-week foetus she wants aborted citing financial constraints.

A vacation bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma ordered the medical board to furnish its report by May 27.

The bench passed the order on a plea of the woman, who claimed that she came to know about her pregnancy on May 17.

“She has come all the way from Dubai and is currently staying in a hotel here. She is not that financially strong,” the counsel said and urged the bench to allow her to terminate her pregnancy.

The bench said it will list the matter for next Monday.

Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, aborting a foetus that is more than 24 weeks old can be allowed only in cases of substantial foetal abnormality as diagnosed by a medical board or if an opinion is formed in good faith for the purpose of saving the life of the pregnant woman.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Supreme Court has allowed a 14-year-old rape survivor to terminate her 30-week pregnancy, overturning an order by the Bombay High Court. The court called it an “exceptional case” and allowed the abortion on the basis of a hospital report.

Indian law requires the court’s permission to undergo abortion beyond 24 weeks of pregnancy.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that while undergoing abortion at this stage involves some risk, medical experts in this case have opined that the threat to life is not higher than the risk of full-term delivery.

“We will allow the medical termination since she is 14 and it is a rape case and this is an exceptional case,” the CJI said.

The teenager’s mother had appealed in the Supreme Court after the Bombay High Court refused to allow her abortion on April 4.

A top court bench, comprising the CJI and Justice JB Pardiwala, held an urgent hearing last Friday in this matter. Stating that the medical report that the high court relied upon regarding the sexual assault failed to assess the physical and mental condition of the teenager, it ordered a fresh check-up at a Maharashtra hospital.

The medical board at a Sion hospital opined in favour of the abortion. Based on it, the court allowed the abortion by invoking Article 142 of the Constitution, which empowers it to pass an order needed to ensure justice in any case pending before it.

“The medical board at Sion has opined that continuation of pregnancy against will of minor may impact negatively on the physical and mental well-being of the minor, while some risk is involved, the medical board opined that threat to life is not higher than the risk of full-term delivery,” said the Chief Justice.

Passing the order, the court noted that the teenager was unaware of her pregnancy till a very late stage. The court was also informed that a rape case had been filed in this matter along with charges under the stringent POCSO law.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 2021 permits medical termination of pregnancy up to 20 weeks with the opinion of a registered medical practitioner, and up to 24 weeks in some cases. In cases beyond that upper limit, one has to approach the court.

Prague:

A Prague hospital offered apologies on Thursday to a patient on whom it had performed an involuntary abortion after mixing her up with another patient last week.

One of the women came to the hospital for a regular check as she was pregnant, while the other arrived for curettage, a tissue removal procedure, which is also a method of terminating a pregnancy.

Both were Asian with a permanent residence in the Czech Republic, local media have said.

Hospital staff mixed them up and performed the surgery on the pregnant patient, who lost her foetus as a result.

“Unfortunately, it was a human error, a human failure,” Jan Kvacek, head of the Bulovka hospital in Prague, told reporters on Thursday.

Kvacek said the hospital was “deeply sorry” for what he called a “tragic” mix-up and said the institution also offered psychological and legal assistance to the patient.

“She is no doubt entitled to receive compensation,” he added, blaming a language barrier as playing a role in the incident.

Michal Zikan, head of the hospital’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said the patient had signed a document in Czech which, however, belonged to the other patient.

“Three days earlier, the patient was told in great detail, in the presence of an interpreter, what she would undergo, that it’s just a check,” Zikan told journalists.

He added the surgeons had “no reason to believe they were dealing with a different patient”.

The hospital has suspended one employee and ordered another one to work under expert supervision as a result.

The case resembles that of Thi-Nho Vo, a Frenchwoman of a Vietnamese origin, who lost her baby in 1991 after a similar patient mix-up in Lyon.

Thi-Nho lodged a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, claiming the hospital had committed involuntary homicide.

But the court ruled in 2003 that the involuntary abortion of a foetus does not constitute manslaughter, setting a precedent on the legal status of unborn babies.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

In strong observations while hearing a woman’s request to terminate a 26-week pregnancy, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked if the petitioner wanted permission to kill the child through a court order.

The Supreme Court has asked the woman’s counsel and the centre’s lawyer to speak to her before the next hearing tomorrow morning.

The three-judge bench led by the Chief Justice of India is hearing the married woman’s petition for the permission to abort the 26-week pregnancy. A mother of two, the woman has said she is suffering from depression and is not in a position to raise a third child, emotionally or financially.

On October 9, the court had allowed her to proceed with the pregnancy. The centre then sought a recall of the order, citing the advice of a panel of doctors at AIIMS Delhi against the abortion. Yesterday, a two-judge bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice BV Nagarathna gave a split verdict. Following this, the Chief Justice of India-led bench took up the matter.

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court has placed on hold an order allowing the termination of a 26-week pregnancy after the government submitted a medical report indicating the foetus is “viable”, i.e., it shows signs of life and has a strong possibility of survival. The court, hearing a government plea to recall its order, said it wanted to hear from the woman before passing the new order.

The hearing is to resume at 2 pm.

The top court, which yesterday allowed the termination, was irked by the last-minute AIIMS report, and demanded to know why it had not been presented sooner. “Why only after our order? Why were they not candid earlier? Which court wants to stop a foetus with a heartbeat? Certainly not us, for heaven’s sake,” Justice Hima Kohli said.

On Tuesday, a different bench of the Supreme Court allowed the couple to abort their 26-week-old pregnancy after the petitioner argued that the woman, who is a mother of two children, is suffering from various health issues and from postnatal depression.

The woman said she is financially, emotionally and socially not in a position to raise a third child while she is already breastfeeding her second child.