Mental Injury, not a valid ground to terminate pregnancy beyond 20 weeks rules the Punjab and Haryana High Court
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday while rejecting a 24-year old women’s plea to terminate her pregnancy said that mental injury is not a valid ground to grant termination of pregnancy.
According to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, only a registered doctor can terminate a pregnancy when it does not exceeds the 12-week time and a maximum time limit up till 20 weeks, only after getting the opinion from two doctors. And in this case, as per the medical reports, the gestation period has already crossed 24 weeks.
The court usually allows a pregnancy to be terminated beyond the period of 20 weeks only in cases where it becomes necessary to safeguard the life of the pregnant women.
The women, in this case, pleaded to the court to grant her permission to terminate her pregnancy giving a reason that the pregnancy would cause grave mental injury to her and the said ground has been rejected by the court stating that any record of the women does not show any debilitative health issues either to the mother or to her fetus.
The court also stated, as the period has exceeded the time limit of 20 weeks, the court cannot support the termination as by now the fetus must have been fully developed and it would neither be in the interest of the woman, nor her fetus to grant a termination now, stated the order.
