A viable, late-term unborn baby with what appears to be a mild disability may be aborted this week in India after the Delhi High Court granted the child’s mother an exception to its late-term abortion ban.
News Track Live reports the justices agreed Tuesday that the decision to abort the 33-week unborn baby should be left up to the 26-year-old mother.
Last week, the pregnant mother asked the court for an exception to the national 24-week abortion limit after learning that her unborn baby likely has brain abnormalities. She said doctors at GTB Hospital refused to perform the late-term abortion, APN Live reports.
Her unborn baby’s condition does not appear to be severe. According to a medical panel’s report to the high court, the child is “compatible with life” – a phrase that typically means the disability is likely mild and not life threatening – and would benefit from surgery.
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Here’s more from the report:
The medical board that Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital appointed to investigate the case stated in its report that while the foetus, once born, would be compatible with life, the degree of any disability due to the abnormality cannot be predicted. In the end, the board decided against medically terminating the pregnancy in the given situation.
The doctors who were virtually present in court stated that the quality of life of the foetus cannot be judged and that surgery can be performed on the newborn.
It appears the mother would rather have her child killed before birth than take the chance of raising a child with a disability. On Tuesday, the court agreed that it is her choice.
Justice Pratibha M. Singh said the law in India gives women the ability to choose abortion, and the lack of certainty about the unborn baby’s condition is all the more reason why the choice should be up to the mother, according to News Track Live. Singh said the mother is aware of the physical and psychological risks of abortion.
India allows unborn babies to be aborted for basically any reason up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. In recent years, however, the Asian country’s courts have been granting numerous exceptions to the law for victims of rape and mothers of unborn babies with disabilities, even though their babies are just as valuable as any other child.
A late-term abortion typically involves injecting a poisonous potassium chloride solution through the woman’s stomach into the baby’s heart, causing excruciating pain as the poison stops his/her heart. A few days later, labor is induced and the woman delivers her dead baby’s body.
By 33 weeks of pregnancy, unborn babies can feel pain, and they are viable outside the womb. Premature babies have survived as early as 21 weeks of pregnancy.
Late-term abortions also can be dangerous for mothers, and some women have died along with their unborn babies. Abortions also can be traumatic and mentally damaging, with studies showing higher rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse and suicide among post-abortive mothers.
India has some of the highest abortion numbers in the world. Approximately 15.6 million unborn babies were aborted in the country in 2015, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Below is an image of an unborn baby at 33 weeks.
