A woman whose live-in relationship has ended should be given the same rights to end an unwanted pregnancy as a widowed or divorced woman, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday, indicating that it will interpret the law to include “unmarried woman” or “single woman” under provisions that allow abortions till up to 24 weeks.
The court made the observations while hearing a petition by a 25-year-old woman who challenged the lower 20-week limit under Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 that applies to single women who seek to end a pregnancy. The woman said she had been abandoned by her partner.
“Going by the legislative intent, a widow has lost support of her life partner and in divorce too, there is loss of support from life partner. This logic will equally apply to a woman who has been abandoned,” observed the bench, which comprised justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, AS Bopanna and JB Pardiwala.
The court reserved its order, indicating its order will interpret the law to include “unmarried” or “single” woman in the sections in question.
The specific gap was in Rule 3B(c) of the MTP Rules, 2003 that allows women who undergo change of marital status during the pregnancy — either by way of widowhood or divorce — to undergo termination of pregnancy till up to 24 weeks.
{{/usCountry}}The specific gap was in Rule 3B(c) of the MTP Rules, 2003 that allows women who undergo change of marital status during the pregnancy — either by way of widowhood or divorce — to undergo termination of pregnancy till up to 24 weeks.
{{/usCountry}}“Take a case where a married woman is neither divorced nor widowed but deserted. She is cast away and has no source of livelihood. Should the law be understood to mean that because she is technically not divorced, she cannot have the right to abort her pregnancy?” the bench noted.
Extending the same logic to unmarried women, the judges said: “For the purpose of a woman’s mental health, both actual and foreseeable factors have to be borne in mind. A woman on being deserted faces foreseeable difficulties. Such a situation where a woman is abandoned will apply to both married and unmarried woman.”
The court was posed with the same situation in the case at hand where the petitioner, a 25-year-old woman hailing from Manipur, was in a consensual relationship and realised in June this year that she was pregnant. By then, her partner had ended the relationship, leaving her to approach the Delhi high court for termination of the 24-week foetus.
The high court on July 15 declined permission on the ground that she was unmarried. The Supreme Court, however, on July 21 allowed her to get the foetus aborted at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The court held that the MTP Act recognised the woman’s bodily integrity and reproductive right and allowing her to suffer an unwanted pregnancy would violate this intent of Parliament.
Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati, who assisted the court, said: “It becomes more vulnerable for an unmarried woman to survive after desertion as a woman who is married falls back on families but in a live-in relationship, not every time the family is supportive of the woman’s decision.”
The court also noted another aspect in Section 3(2) of MTP Act that provides for termination of pregnancy in the event of failure of birth control device either by woman or her partner but restricted the same for a pregnancy within 20 weeks and not beyond.
“Why should we not say that such a right be extended up to 24 weeks as all women are equally circumstanced to suffer the same mental agony of an unwanted pregnancy due to failure of birth control device,” the bench reasoned.
ASG Bhati informed the court that Parliament consciously adopted this distinction in light of prevailing social evils of sex determination and female foeticide. “The anguish of a woman in such a situation will not end even beyond 24 weeks but this can lead to a conflict with Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act, 1994 which seeks to curb sex determination,” she said.
“While crafting the judgment we will ensure the PC-PNDT Act is not diluted as it is a salutary legislation passed by Parliament,” the bench said. “We must accept legislative wisdom that if pregnancy has resulted from failure of birth control device, termination of pregnancy should be at the earliest date possible.”