The Delhi High Court has allowed a 15-year-old rape survivor to terminate her pregnancy, holding that forcing a survivor to continue with a pregnancy resulting from sexual assault would violate her right to live with dignity.
Justice Madhu Jain said the fact that the pregnancy had crossed the statutory gestational limit could not, by itself, determine the outcome of the case. “In cases arising out of sexual assault, compelling a survivor to continue with a pregnancy resulting from the assault and thereby fastening upon her the responsibility of motherhood against her will would amount to a serious impairment of her right to live with dignity,” the court said in its September 8 order.
The girl’s pregnancy had crossed 30 weeks. Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, termination beyond 20 weeks and up to 24 weeks is permitted only in specified circumstances and subject to statutory safeguards. The court, however, said advanced gestation required heightened medical caution but could not override the minor’s rights to bodily autonomy, dignity and reproductive choice.
It observed that reproductive autonomy includes a woman’s right to decide whether she wishes to become a mother. “Compel[ling] a survivor of sexual assault to carry and deliver a child conceived as a consequence of the alleged assault might subject her to further and enduring physical and psychological trauma,” the court said.
Justice Jain described the case as “unfortunate and distressing”, noting that the girl had not only suffered an alleged sexual assault but had also lost both her parents. “At an age when a child ought to be protected, nurtured and allowed to grow in safety and dignity, she had instead been compelled to confront circumstances which no child should ever have to face,” the court observed. “A child of 15 years cannot, in the eyes of this court, be reduced to the description of a ‘mother’ merely because she has been forced into pregnancy as a consequence of sexual violence,” it said.
The court stressed that while legal remedies could be provided, no judicial order could erase the trauma suffered by the child. “What the court can, however, do is ensure that, at a moment of such profound vulnerability, the child is met not with further hardship, but with care, dignity, compassion and the protection of the law,” Justice Jain said.
Allowing the plea, the High Court directed the medical superintendent of Lady Hardinge Medical College and S K Hospital to arrange for the termination at the earliest, subject to the necessary medical assessment and safeguards. The hospital was also directed to preserve tissue or foetal material for DNA identification and other purposes connected with the criminal case.
The State will bear the expenses of the procedure, including medicines, tests, hospitalisation, food and other medical requirements. The court further directed that if the foetus was born alive despite the procedure, doctors must take all feasible measures for its medical care. The Child Welfare Committee will then take further steps in accordance with the law.
