Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 15
The SC today issued notice to the Centre on a petition challenging the validity of certain provisions of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act which disallow abortion beyond certain period of time.
Petitioners Swati Agarwal, Garima Sekseria and Prachi Vats contended that the provisions which allow abortion only to save the woman’s life or in case of abnormal foetus violated women’s right to health, “free reproductive choice” and “privacy”.
A Bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi asked the Centre to respond to the petition that wanted sections 3(2) (a) and 3(2) (b) of the MTP Act to be declared as “void and unconstitutional” being violative of the petitioners’ fundamental rights.
Section 3(2) (a) of the Act provided that for pregnancies not exceeding 12 weeks, a medical practitioner need to state that continuance of pregnancy would involve a risk to the woman’s life or cause grave injury to her physical or mental health or there is substantial risk to the child, if born, as it would suffer from serious physical or mental health abnormalities.
They said Section 3(2) (b) of the MTP Act mandated that the opinion of a registered medical practitioner to terminate pregnancy would be needed and the abortion after 20 weeks can only be allowed on the ground of risk to life of a woman and it violated her right to health, reproductive choice and privacy.
“Restricting the permissible length of pregnancy to 20 weeks is excessive and harsh. With the advent of science and technology, diagnosis of foetal abnormalities is possible at subsequent stages and it is possible to terminate pregnancy even at later stages,” they said.
“The state cannot compel a woman to continue a pregnancy against her will when continuance of pregnancy will entail physical, mental and socio-economic consequences which far outweigh the consequences that ensue as a result of termination of pregnancy,” they submitted.
‘Restricting pregnancy to 20 weeks harsh’
- The petitioners want sections 3(2) (a), 3(2) (b) of MTP Act to be declared as ‘void, unconstitutional’
- They said restricting the permissible length of pregnancy to 20 weeks is excessive and harsh. “With the advent of science, diagnosis of foetal abnormalities is possible at subsequent stages and it has become possible to terminate pregnancy even at later stages.”
- “The state cannot compel a woman to continue a pregnancy against her will when continuance of pregnancy will entail physical, mental and socio-economic consequences,” they said
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2k60ZTs
via Today’s News Headlines
No comments: