Rape victim who gets pregnant must be told about her legal rights. There is section 3 of the medical termination of pregnancy act, of 1971 prohibits termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks.
Bombay High Court allows 12-year-old rape victim to abort fetus, says forcing pregnancy will breach her fundamental rights .
In continuation of this, The Bombay High Court permitted a 12-year-old minor victim of rape and sexual assault to undergo medical termination of her pregnancy, which was a result of this assault, despite the pregnancy being beyond the permissible 20 weeks limit and the fetus having only minor abnormalities.
A vacation bench of justices ST KATHAWALA and ABHAY AHUJA took note of the mental anguish and trauma. The minor have to undergo peer pressure if forced to continue the pregnancy to full term.
The brief facts of the case were that there was a 12 year minor girl who was sexually assaulted and mentally harassed by his 22-year-old cousin in a family function. The plea was filed by the victim’s father before Bombay High Court for urgent termination of pregnancy.
It(above case) also cited a April 2019 order passed by another Bombay High Court bench, which had held that if a pregnancy posed injury to a woman’s mental health, then forcing her to continue with such pregnancy would be in breach of her fundamental right to life.
It said that in the eyes of the law the 2019 order, had correctly held that in a situation where continuation of pregnancy poses grave injury to the physical and mental health of the mother, the pregnant mother would not be forced to continue with the pregnancy merely because it had extended beyond the ceiling of 20 weeks.
As there was a case before Haryana and Punjab High Court where a minor of 10 years was raped and sexually harassed by one of her relatives. On a sudden day when she felt pain in her abdomen, thereafter she was admitted to a local hospital and was undergone sonography whose result says that the girl was 23 weeks and 8 days pregnant.
When her father filed plea for termination of her unwanted pregnancy. It was too late to terminate as the Medical Termination Of Pregnancy Act 1971 states that termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks is risky for the life of the victim.
As a result, the victim(10-year-old minor) has to give birth to the child as termination could risk her life and can cause death which infringes her Right to Life which is not admissible in a court of law.
“The same would be a serious afront to fundamental rights of such mother to privacy, to exercise reproductive choices, and even to her bodily integrity as also dignity.” Justice KATHAWALA bench quoted from the 2019 order.
The vacation bench was presiding over a plea filed by the victim’s father. It pointed that the victim was admitted in the state-run JJ hospital in the city and a panel of specialized doctors with experienced gynecologists there they had examined her body ads well as the situation and concluded that “only minor anomaly is detected in the foetus of the pregnant minor mother”. She is anguished with the pregnancy the JJ hospital panel had also told High Court that the continuation of the pregnancy was likely to have an adverse psychological impact on the minor.
The High Court vacation bench noted that in the current case, the medical board had clearly pointed and anguished that the minor was anguished with the pregnancy and its continuation may lead to complications during labor. “ it is further opined the continuation of such an unwanted pregnancy will have both physical and mental stress to the minor as well as have a psychological impact. High Court said.
It even directed JJ hospital authorities to provide counseling and requested medical aid to the victim and to perform the termination of pregnancy procedure.
The bench also directed the Maharashtra government to immediately place the FIR registered in the rape case. The victim’s medical report and other released documents before the District Legal Service Authority(DLSA) to ensure the victim is provided compensation and aid promised under the state’s MANODHAIRYA scheme.
The , medical board in its report found that the fetus has gained the gestation age of 28 weeks and 3 days (=/- two weeks) and that it was risky to abort at this age.
The national rape-related pregnancy rate is 5% per rape among victims of reproductive age (aged 12 to 45) and it is 6% in case of nonreproductive aged, and among women, an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result for rape each year.
There are 2 different stories:
Pregnancy test : Positive
- The childless woman finally smiled.
- The rape victim cried.
The second one is really painful as the victim suffers not only physically but emotionally and mentally also. There are likeliness of 20% increased depression.
Summing up with my viewpoint, we should always count the number by how many man raped women or how many boys sexually harassed girls in schools and not by how many women or girls become the sufferer. This would be a prospect of viewing the critique about men for their deplorable act towards women/girls/minor girls.