Woman Seeking Termination Of Pregnancy At 23 Weeks Asked To Consider Adoption

The Delhi High Court said it would “not permit” a 25-year-old unmarried woman to terminate her pregnancy past 23 weeks. The Court said that termination of pregnancy at 23 weeks “virtually amounts to killing the foetus”.

The Court suggested that the unmarried woman go through with the pregnancy and give the child up for adoption rather than terminating the pregnancy. A bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma was dealing with the petition by the woman to undergo medical termination of pregnancy.

The court said it was not forcing the petitioner to raise the child and suggested that the woman give the child up for adoption. Chief Justice Sharma said the Indian government, Delhi government, or a hospital would look after the petitioner, and if not then he would also be willing to pay for the expenses.

The bench said, “We will not permit you to kill that child… Give the child to somebody in adoption. Why are you killing the child?”

Woman Seeks Termination Of Pregnancy At 23 Weeks

The petitioner was abandoned by her partner “at the last moment”. The counsel for the petitioner said that being forced to carry the child to term would “cause great injury to her mental health and be a violation of her reproductive rights”.

The petitioner’s lawyer turned down the court’s suggestion for adoption and said that the petitioner did not want to deliver the child.

The Delhi High Court said that the law granted time to unmarried women to undergo medical termination and that the legislature “purposefully excluded consensual relationship” from cases where termination is permissible after 20 weeks and up to 24 weeks.

The woman was challenging a rule in the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003. The rule only permitted some categories of women to seek termination of pregnancy between 20 to 24 weeks. The list of permitted women did not include unmarried women.

Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Amendment Act 2021, a pregnancy can be terminated between 20 to 24 weeks after getting the opinion of two doctors. The woman in question is 23 weeks pregnant.

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