Cuttack: While allowing a rape victim to terminate her pregnancy after 20 weeks of conception, the Orissa High Court recently ruled that right to progeny and termination are both fundamental rights enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The high Court cited the instance of Meera Santosh Pal vs. Union of India, (2017) 3 SCC 462, wherein the Supreme Court had held that women’s right to make reproductive choice is also an aspect of personal liberty as understood under Article 21 of the Constitution.
In this case, the victim was 21 weeks pregnant and according to the existing Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP Act), medical termination of pregnancy more than 20 weeks old is not permitted.
However, a Division Bench of Justices SK Mishra and Savitri Ratho mentioned about the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020, currently pending before the Rajya Sabha, which permits termination of pregnancies up to 24 weeks.
While the Bench recognised that the Bill is yet to be passed and cannot be considered as a law, it proceeded to observe, “It is reflected that due to passage of time and advancement of medical technology for safe abortion there is a scope for increasing the outer limit for terminating pregnancy especially for vulnerable women and pregnancy with substantial fetal abnormalities detected late in pregnancy.”
PNN