The Supreme Court directed doctors at AIIMS Delhi to defer the medical termination of a 26-week-old fetus of a married woman who was granted permission to abort the foetus the day before by another bench of the court.
The permission to abort was withdrawn on Tuesday, following a statement by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Central government, who argued that the permission was inconsistent with the pregnant woman's medical report. The court had initially granted permission for the termination of the pregnancy,, the court had asked the specialists from AIIMS to conduct a medical examination and submit a report.
“Can you come with a formal application for recall (of the order)? We will place before the bench which passed the order. The AIIMS doctors are in a very serious dilemma... I will constitute a bench tomorrow morning. Please ask AIIMS to hold for now,” a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra quoted as per India Today.
On Monday, the bench headed by Justice Hima Kohli and comprising BV Nagarathna allowed the petitioner, a married woman with two children to terminate her pregnancy. The woman had filed a petition with the court, stating that she was breastfeeding her second child when she became pregnant again. As per medical reports, during lactational amenorrhea, pregnancy doesn't occur generally. However, the woman was unaware of her pregnancy until it was quite late and also told the court that she was not in a position to raise a third child. The court acknowledged the woman's reluctance to have a third child and rendered an order accordingly.
"This court does recognise the right of a woman over her body and the fact that if an unwarranted pregnancy results in a child being brought into the world, a large part of the responsibility of rearing such a child will fall on the shoulder of the petitioner, which at this point she doesn't consider herself fit for," the bench had said according to India Today.
Subsequently, the bench asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to assess the medical condition of a woman who was granted permission to have an abortion at 26 weeks of pregnancy.
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