Supreme Court rejects woman's plea seeking abortion after 26 weeks

Monday, October 16, rejected the woman's plea for termination of her over 26-week healthy foetus on account of her illness.  The court said the foetus was healthy and the AIIMS medical board found no abnormality with it.

The order was given by a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misa. "The length of the pregnancy has crossed 24 weeks and it is approximately 26 weeks and 5 days old. The medical termination of the pregnancy cannot be permitted," the bench said.

The apex court had earlier sought a second opinion from the AIIMS medical board on whether the over 26-week foetus is suffering from any abnormality. The bench was hearing arguments on the Centre's application seeking recall of the apex court's October 9 order permitting the 27-year-old woman, a mother of two, to undergo termination at AIIMS.

Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, the upper limit for the termination of pregnancy is 24 weeks for married women, special categories including survivors of rape, and other vulnerable women such as the differently-abled and minors. The apex court is faced with a conundrum over whether to allow the woman to terminate the foetus which is now over 26 weeks old.

The issue arose after one of the doctors of the AIIMS medical board, which examined the woman and filed a report dated October 6 in the apex court, sent an e-mail on October 10 saying the foetus had a strong possibility of survival. The matter came up before the CJI-led bench after a two-judge bench on October 11 gave a split verdict on the Centre's plea for recall of its October 9 order granting permission to the woman to end her pregnancy.