New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a Mumbai girl with 24 weeks of pregnancy to undergo medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) as continuation of the same could endanger her own life and no chance of the fetus surviving.
The bench of Justices S. A. Bobde and Justice L. Nageswara Rao acted on the report of a medical board of seven specialists which examined the 22-year old in Parel”s KEM Hospital. The report also stressed that the fetus is without a skull and as such no chance of fetus with undeveloped skull surviving outside the uterus. The court said the MTP would be performed by the same team of seven doctors who examined her in pursuance to its directive last week.
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 does not allow abortion beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy. In the instant case, the defect in the fetus was found out in the girl when she was in 21st week of gestation. This is the fourth such case from Mumbai brought to the Supreme Court”s notice in the past three years.
The girl, a resident of a western suburb, had moved the apex court last week seeking permission to abort the fetus that was detected with anencephaly, a serious defect where parts of the brain or skull are not adequately developed.