Bombay High Court allows abortion of over 20-week foetus at a pvt hospital

Mumbai: A 27-year-old pregnant woman whose foetus was diagnosed with severe cardiac anomalies after the permissible limit of 20 weeks for abortion, underwent a medical termination at 27 weeks of pregnancy at a private hospital in the city last week, following the Bombay High Court’s approval.

“Among the 60-odd women who have moved courts in the last three years for permission to seek abortion beyond the permissible deadline of 20 weeks, she is only the second to undergo a termination at a private hospital,” said gynaceologist Dr Nikhil Datar who performed the procedure. She was allowed by the court to choose between state-run J J Hospital or a private hospital of her choice. She underwent termination on March 7 at Cloudnine Hospital in Malad.

The woman, who lives in Malaysia, flew down to Mumbai on February 4 after doctors there told her, her foetus had anomalies. Her sister-in-law told TOI that the woman came to Mumbai for a second opinion from Indian doctors. “My brother and sister-in-law didn’t want to end the pregnancy as it was to be their first child,” she said. In May 2018, a 37-year-old was the first in the country to be allowed to undergo the procedure in a private hospital.