The decision of the expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court to allow a minor who was raped, to undergo an abortion after 24 weeks of gestation, is a welcome one. And doctors thus initiated the procedure on the young person on Friday. In referring the case to the panel, the court looked beyond the rule book, while treating the right to life as a revered constitutional principle. Is the right to life absolutely inviolate? Earlier this week the court allowed the three-member committee to decide whether >the appellant, a 14-year-old , could undergo the abortion if it was “immediately necessary to save the life of the mother”. One of the judges wondered about the future of the foetus, practically in the sixth month of gestation. Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971 it is legal for a registered medical practitioner to do the procedure within 20 weeks of gestation if “the continuance of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or of grave injury [to] physical or mental health.” In cases of rape, the law says, the anguish caused by pregnancy shall be presumed to constitute a grave injury to the mental health of the woman. In the case of a person below 18, the decision should be taken by a guardian.
All such extenuating circumstances are applicable in this case — except that the appellant is a minor, and it is four weeks too late under the law. Obstetricians hold that while considering an abortion, a period of four more weeks does not really make a material difference. Going through with a pregnancy after a rape and having to raise a baby, could be extremely traumatic. Technological options for medical termination of pregnancy are far more advanced today than in earlier days, and the procedure, if done in a hospital setting with adequate support, can be safe enough for the mother. In fact, in cases where major fetal anomalies are detected at an advanced stage of pregnancy, termination is being done even up to 32 weeks, taking into account the health of mother and baby. Delivered at 24 weeks, a foetus will be extremely pre-term, with the possibility of developing major disabilities. On the count of the age of the survivor, there is a precedent, too: in a 1993 judgment, a Bench of the Madras High Court held that minors who are mature enough to understand the consequences of opting or not opting for an abortion must be allowed to make their own decisions. The state, ultimately, needs to look at its role in protecting the right to life from an expansive point of view. For the law is, obviously, more than the sum of its rules.
