SC Orders Setting Up Of Medical Board To Examine 10 Yr Old Rape Victim’s Plea For Abortion

Acting on a plea by a 10 year old rape victim’s plea for aborting a 26-week-old fetus, the Supreme Court today ordered setting up of a medical board comprising of top doctors of Chandigarh’s PGIMER hospital to  examine if her health will be adversely affected if the pregnancy continues

“The exercise is to ascertain the health of the girl concerned and the fetus and and to ascertain if the pregnancy can be continued for a full term”, said the order.

A bench headed by chief justice J S Khehar also  made Member Secretary of Chandigarh Legal Service Authority a party to oversee all the requirements and also ensure that today's order is complied with.

A report has been sought from him in a sealed cover by Wednesday

Her lawyer had sought sought direction to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Law and Justice to immediately constitute a “better” medical board comprising AIIMS doctors and ensure the safe termination of her pregnancy.

The petition has been filed in the wake of a Chandigarh district court’s July 18 order refusing to let the girl undergo the abortion after it was confirmed that she was 26-week pregnant.

The petition, filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, has also sought that appropriate guidelines be framed by the top court to set up a permanent medical board in each district of India for expedient termination of pregnancies in exceptional cases involving child rape survivors under the best possible medical facilities.

“The medical experts have categorically opined that if the 10-year-old rape survivor is forced to give birth through normal delivery or C-section, it may be fatal to the life of the girl as well her child,” the petition filed through advocate Kedar Nath Tripathy said.

The petition also sought direction to the Centre to amend Section 3 of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, so as to permit termination of pregnancies of more than 20 weeks, particularly involving child rape survivors after obtaining requisite opinion from a permanently constituted medical board. The medical board should be constituted in each district comprising renowned medical practitioners from the reputed hospitals of India, it said.

The courts allow medical termination of pregnancy up to 20 weeks under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and can make an exception if the fetus is genetically abnormal.

Read the Order Here