Delhi High Court Directs AIIMS To constitute Medical Board to Determine Whether termination of pregnancy Is Safe For The Mother

The Delhi High Court directed All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi to immediately constitute a Medical Board to consider as to whether it will be safe for the Petitioner herein to undergo the procedure for termination of pregnancy or not and also on the condition of fetus.

Single Bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that a woman’s freedom of choice whether to bear a child or abort her pregnancy are areas which fall in the realm of privacy. The right to reproductive choice also includes the right not to procreate and in doing so, it situated the reproductive rights of women within the core of constitutional rights and held that decisional autonomy is an integral part of the right to privacy and decisional autonomy is the ability to make decisions in respect of intimate relations.

The Petitioner has approached the Court seeking permission to terminate her ongoing pregnancy of 21 weeks 4 days, as per the ultrasound scan dated 06.10.2023, and as of today 22 weeks 4 days, through a Registered Medical Practitioner in any Government or Private Hospital under Section 3(2)(b)(i) and Section 3(3) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (MTP Act) read with Rule 3B(C) of the MTP Rules, 2003.

The Petitioner came to know about carrying a single intrauterine pregnancy of 5 weeks 6 days. It is stated that right from the early stages of marriage, the Petitioner was being tortured, abused verbally, physically, mentally and emotionally by her husband at her matrimonial home. It is stated that on 07.07.2023, the husband of the Petitioner for the first time committed physical assault on the Petitioner. It is stated that the second instance of physical assault took place on 10.08.2023 when the Petitioner was 3 months pregnant and on the said date, the Petitioner came to her parental home and started staying there since then.

“The opinion of a Medical Board would be necessary for consideration as to whether it would be safe for the Petitioner to undergo the procedure for termination of pregnancy by a registered medical practitioner and also to ascertain the conditions of the foetus,” the court said.

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