A two-judge panel of the Bombay High Court, sitting in Nagpur, has ruled that a 17-year-old girl may abort her 28-week-and-six-day-old baby.
The girl was described as the victim of a sexual assault, but the legal ruling would appear to be much more expansive.
“A woman alone who has full right over her body and is the ultimate decision-maker on the question of whether she wants to undergo abortion,” the panel ruled.
Reporting for the Times of India, Vaibhav Ganjapure added
“A division bench comprising Justices Anil Kilor and Rajnish Vyas said an unwanted or incidental pregnancy becomes a burden for the pregnant woman.”
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The assault was reported at the Koradi police station on September 6, according to the Times of India. It is not clear exactly when the court appointed Sweety Bhatia as counsel to represent the minor girl.
Ganjapure writes
The bench had initially referred the girl to [the] Medical Termination of Pregnancy Board on September 10. The Board’s first report, submitted on September 11, stated that she was not medically fit to undergo the procedure.
After Bhatia submitted that she could be re-examined after a week, the court directed that the matter be listed again on September 17. A fresh report submitted that day stated that the girl was medically and physically fit to undergo termination of pregnancy.
The text of the order was/is unavailable, thus we can only guess at why the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Board would deem the girl “not medically fit” to undergo an abortion at 27 weeks but a week later be “medically and physically fit to undergo termination of pregnancy.”
Justices Kilor and Vyas said
“Considering the fact that there is no life threat to the petitioner and the opinion given by the Medical Board, we deem it appropriate to direct dean of Govt Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) here, to permit her to undergo the medical termination of pregnancy at the earliest by taking recourse of safety protocols and by complying with our observations.”
What technique is used to “terminate” the baby is not mentioned in the story, But the “risk” that a baby this advanced would be born alive means that the abortionists will most likely kill the baby in utero typically by injecting potassium chloride directly into the heart. (An “induction abortion.”)
“The woman’s cervix is dilated over a period of days and she eventually experiences labor, giving birth to a stillborn baby,” said Live Action News’s Carole Novelli.
“This is well past the time a preborn child can survive outside the womb with medical assistance.”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.
Below is an image of an unborn baby at 29 weeks.
