On Wednesday, in a historic judgement, Ahmedebad City Civil Sessions court allowed a government-run mental hospital to terminate the pregnancy of a mentally retarded woman, observing that she would not be able to look after her child.
Additional sessions judge Himanshu Joshi, while allowing the revision application moved by the superintendent of the mental hospital, ordered abortion under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act. Under the Act, if a pregnancy is less than 20 week, then it can be aborted. The woman, suffering from “schizophrenia”, is in the 14th week of her pregnancy.
