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Delhi court permits HIV+ girl to terminate her pregnancy
The Delhi high court today allowed an HIV positive teenager to terminate her pregnancy on the ground of her ill health and that she had conceived against her will at a brothel.
The Delhi high court on Friday allowed an HIV positive teenager to terminate her pregnancy on the ground of her ill health and that she had conceived against her will at a brothel.
Acting swiftly on the plea of the rescued teenager, who was 19 weeks pregnant, justice Sunita Gupta directed the Delhi government to take her to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital here and get her pregnancy terminated within three days.
The HC passed the order after the hospital’s medical board, which was earlier directed to ascertain the condition of the 19-year-old girl, gave its nod for the termination procedure.
Justice Gupta accepted the girl’s submissions that she was from the poor strata of the society and it was a forced pregnancy amounting to rape at the brothel.
The girl had petitioned that the police had recovered her along with some other girls from the brothel during a raid and had been kept at Nari Niketan, shelter home for destitute women.
The girl had informed the authorities about her pregnancy and asked them to allow her to abort the foetus.
But her request was turned down because the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act prohibits abortion of a foetus which is more than 12 weeks old.
She had moved the HC after the authorities asked her to first get clearance from the court for aborting the pregnancy as she was in the protective custody of Nari Niketan.
Girl’s counsel Nandita Rao had argued the state had a legal obligation to provide medical care to the girl as she was HIV positive and in bad health.
The HC further directed the government to ensure the girl got proper medicines and diet during the treatment.
Rao told HT the HC was very “sensitive” in dealing with the case and adjudicated the matter in three days without any unnecessary delay.
