Bombay high court says, domestic violence taking place on women and the valid reason for terminating pregnancy is allowed.
The high court bench allowed the abortion of a 23-week-old healthy fetus saying the female had undergone psychological trauma and continuation of the pregnancy would add to such trauma.
Mumbai: The Bombay High court has allowed a female to abort her 23-week old healthy fetus while observing that violence has an impact on a woman’s psychological health and the same can be a reasonable ground for medically terminating her pregnancy.
The judgement was gone by a bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Madhav Jamdar on the 3rd of August 2020 and a replica of it had been made available on Tuesday.
The high court of Bombay in its order also mentioned the reproductive rights of females, as envisaged by the Wealth Health Organization.
The 22-year-old woman, a victim of violence, had been examined by a panel of experts at the state-run J J Hospital in Mumbai.
The panel held that while her fetus was healthy and had no abnormalities, the woman had undergone much psychological trauma and continuation of the pregnancy would add to such trauma.
In her appeal, the woman told the high court that she and her husband were getting divorced and she or he did not wish to continue with the pregnancy.
The current Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act doesn't permit termination of pregnancy beyond 20 weeks unless it poses health risks for the fetus and therefore the mother.
However, various appellate courts also because the Bombay High court has batted for women’s psychological health on several previous occasions and permitted termination of pregnancy beyond 20 weeks, if it poses a risk to a woman’s psychological health and if a medical panel so advises.
An amendment to the Act, which is yet to be implemented, extends the time frame to 24 weeks.
In the present case, the high court said, “If contraception failure resulting in pregnancy is often presumed to constitute a life-threatening injury to the psychological health of the pregnant woman, can it be said that a pregnant woman affected by violence would not face grave injury to her intellectual health if pregnancy is allowed to continue within the face of continuing domestic violence with a distant foreseeable future?”
Referring to the reproductive rights of females as envisaged by the planet Health Organisation (WHO), the bench said, “The core issue is that the control a female has or exercises over her own body and reproductive choice. Control over reproduction may be a basic need and a basic right of all women. Linked as it is to women’s health and social status, it is from the perspective of poor female or female of rural areas that this right can be best understood.”
The high court further said, “Rape is an instance of utmost violence committee on a female. Domestic violence is also a violence committee on a female though the degree might be marginal.”
It noted that the petitioner had said in her appeal that in the event the child was born, she would not receive requisite financial and emotional support from her husband.
“In such circumstances, we are of the view that declining permission to the petitioner will tantamount to forcing her to continue together with her pregnancy, which within the circumstances won't only become exceedingly onerous and oppressive on her, but has the potential to cause life-threatening injury to her psychological health,” the high court said.
The bench permitted the petitioner woman to undergo termination of the pregnancy at Mumbai in Cooper Hospital.
SOURCE
https://theprint.in/judiciary/domestic-violence-valid-ground-for-terminating-pregnancy-says-bombay-hc/717600/