Woman doesn’t need man’s consent to abort her child: Supreme Court of India
The Apex Court has ruled that an adult woman had an unimpeachable right to give birth or abort the pregnancy. A man’s plea before the Punjab and Haryana High court was dismissed. The High court said, keeping in view of the marital position of the couple, the decision to terminate the unwanted fetus was right, it is not the termination that soured the relationship between the two.
Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, the court maintained, there was no need to express or implied consent from the husband. It is the sole prerogative of the woman to abort or keep the child. The bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra said, that even a mentally challenged woman has the right to terminate the pregnancy. In this particular case, she is a mother and an adult and no one can accuse or count her to be liable.
In this particular case, the husband raised objections to termination of the fetus and refused to sign any documents approving of the same, but the woman went ahead with abortion at a hospital in Chandigarh.
The couple got married in the year 1994, and they had a son in the year 1995. Since 1999, the wife and her son had been living with her parents in Chandigarh due to fights and also filed a maintenance case. The Lok Adalat has mediated and counseled the couple to live together again. In November 2002, they started living together again and in the process realized she was pregnant. But the relationship between the couple never improved and she decided to terminate the unwanted pregnancy.
While rejecting the man’s petition of seeking INR 30 lakhs as damages from his separated wife for undergoing an abortion without his consent, the order was passed by the court that wife had consented to matrimonial sex, but that does not imply she has consented to conceive a child. She is all free to decide to give birth or no.
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