Mumbai, Dec 13: The Bombay High Court Wednesday permitted a mentally challenged rape survivor to abort her 22-week-old foetus.
In a significant order, the court also ruled that as the survivor was mentally challenged and incapable of taking her own decisions, her legal guardian – in this case her mother – must be allowed to take the decision on her behalf.
A division bench of Justices RM Borde and Vibha Kankanwadi held that the survivor (or her legal guardian) had the right to decide whether she wished to continue the pregnancy which was the result of a sexual assault.
The bench cited the Supreme Court’s 2009 order that had held that a woman’s right to exercise her reproductive choices was part of personal liberty guaranteed by the constitution.
“The freedom of making choices is an integral part of a woman’s personal liberty and it cannot be taken away,” the bench said.
As per the plea filed by the survivor’s mother, the survivor, a resident of Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, was allegedly raped by an unknown person.
When the family realised that she was pregnant, they visited a local hospital for medical termination of the pregnancy. However, the hospital refused though the survivor was only 18 weeks pregnant.
The hospital authorities refused to perform abortion on the ground that the survivor, with hearing and speaking disability and mentally challenged, was not capable of giving a clear consent for the procedure.
Subsequently, the survivor’s mother moved the High Court, seeking permission to abort the foetus. (PTI)