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Delhi high court allows woman to end 29-week pregnancy on mental health concerns
The court said that the woman was under immense trauma, had suicidal tendencies, and that continuing her pregnancy could impair her mental stability
The Delhi high court has permitted a 23-year-old woman to medically terminate her 29-week pregnancy over mental health concerns she developed following her husband’s death.
Citing the woman’s psychiatric evaluation report by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, the court said that the woman was under immense trauma, had suicidal tendencies, and that continuing her pregnancy could impair her mental stability.
To be sure, the psychiatric report did not comment on the termination of pregnancy but only advised the woman to undergo treatment for her medical condition.
Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, women can undergo abortions legally up to 20 weeks of pregnancy following an opinion of a registered medical practitioner (RMP) and up to 24 weeks for certain women defined under MTP Rules. Rule 3B(2) of MTP allows a woman to terminate her pregnancy between 20 and 24 weeks on account of a change in marital status through widowhood or divorce, mental anguish, rape, assault, and health complications, among other reasons.
“There is a change in the petitioner’s marital status. She has become a widow. This court thinks that at this juncture the petitioner should be permitted to terminate her pregnancy because allowing her to continue with the pregnancy can impair her mental stability as she is showing suicidal tendencies,” a bench of justice Subramonium Prasad said on Thursday.
The woman found out in October that she was 20 weeks pregnant. In December, she decided to terminate her pregnancy, but the doctors refused to perform the procedure as her gestation period was more than 24 weeks. She then approached the high court.
On December 22, the high court directed AIIMS to constitute a medical board to examine her condition. In its report, AIIMS opposed the termination of pregnancy because the rules permit termination only up to 24 weeks of gestation.
On December 27, however, the court was informed about the woman’s mental condition and directed AIIMS to get her psychiatric evaluation done. The report said she suffered from depression and exhibited suicidal tendencies.
“On mental status examination, she had depressed affect and ideas of worthlessness, suicidal thoughts secondary to refusal to MTP, and foeticidal thoughts with impaired judgement and insight. She was provisionally diagnosed as depression with problems related to the death of her spouse and a differential diagnosis of adjustment disorder,” the report said.
In its ruling on Thursday, the court referred to the Supreme Court ruling in X v Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Another (2022).
In that case, the court allowed a 25-year-old single woman to terminate her 22-week pregnancy, which had resulted from a consensual relationship, saying that it is the prerogative of each woman to evaluate her life and arrive at the best course of action given the change in material circumstance.
