AHMEDABAD: A city sessions court on Wednesday permitted a 21-year-old rape survivor to terminate her 18-week pregnancy under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act after she complained that she had been impregnated by her father-in-law.
The woman had approached the city sessions court last week and requested the court to permit her to abort her fetus because she did not want to keep the pregnancy.
She told the court that she was impregnated by her father-in-law and it is not socially and religiously permissible to her to deliver such a child. Moreover, her financial condition also does not permit her to bear the cost involved in raising the child, if allowed to be born.
The public prosecutor Sudhir Brahmbhatt subscribed to the rape survivor’s arguments and submitted that considering the peculiar facts of the case, it is not possible for the woman to deliver the child and therefore she was required to be permitted to terminate her pregnancy.
After hearing the case, the court had sent the woman to the Civil Hospital for medical examination by two gynaecologists and sought their report.
After perusal of the report, the court observed that the rape survivor is an adult woman and since the pregnancy is not beyond 20 weeks, the bar of the MTP Act would not cause hindrance in allowing her to abort.
The court permitted the woman to end her pregnancy with observation that when protector has become predator, termination of pregnancy is definitely in the welfare of the victim.
The court ordered termination of pregnancy before it advances beyond 20 weeks. It also ordered to preserve tissues of fetus so that it could be sent to the forensic science laboratory for DNA testing in order to nail the accused in criminal investigation.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
