AIIMS tells Delhi HC: 28-week termination poses serious risks — MTP Act jurisprudence revisited

📰 What Happened

An AIIMS medical board on Friday told the Delhi HC that medically terminating a 28-week pregnancy with severe Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) was ‘not permitted in the present case’ for a 29-year-old married woman. The HC had directed AIIMS and ABVIMS-RML to examine her after she expressed dissatisfaction with the earlier RML report. AIIMS held the foetus had a ‘guarded prognosis’ but no genetic abnormality, and that a Cesarean at this stage carried risks of uterine rupture, preterm delivery and implications for future fertility. Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav recorded that there was a ‘high probability’ of intrauterine demise, ordered weekly follow-up and disposed the plea.

🎯 Why It Matters for CLAT 2027

The MTP (Amendment) Act 2021 raised the gestational ceiling for termination from 20 to 24 weeks for special categories, with the Medical Board cleared to permit termination beyond 24 weeks only in cases of substantial foetal abnormalities. A 28-week request therefore sits at the outermost edge of statutory permissibility and triggers the foetal viability doctrine. The case will guide HCs on how Medical Boards must reason — not just on feasibility, but on the woman’s reproductive autonomy under K.S. Puttaswamy (2017) and the unborn’s interest under evolving common-law jurisprudence.

CLAT Tip: The X v. UoI (2023) recall order is the freshest precedent — examiners can ask how foetal viability balances against Article 21 reproductive autonomy.

📚 Key Concepts to Remember

• MTP Act 1971 — original cap 20 weeks; required two RMP opinions beyond 12 weeks.
• MTP (Amendment) Act 2021 — 24-week cap for special categories (rape survivors, minors, disabled women, change of marital status, foetal abnormalities); Medical Boards in every State for termination >24 weeks where substantial foetal abnormalities exist.
• Foetal viability doctrine — common-law principle that the State’s interest in preserving foetal life sharpens with gestational age.
• Reproductive autonomy as part of Article 21 — recognised in Suchita Srivastava and reaffirmed in K.S. Puttaswamy.
• Section 312 IPC / Section 88 BNS — criminalise causing miscarriage except in good faith for saving the woman’s life; MTP Act creates the statutory carve-out.

⚖️ Legal Angle & Precedents

Suchita Srivastava v. Chandigarh Administration (2009) — reproductive choice = personal liberty; K.S. Puttaswamy v. UoI (2017) — privacy includes bodily autonomy; X v. Union of India (2023) — SC permitted termination of 26-week pregnancy of married woman, then recalled order after AIIMS report on foetal viability; Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Privacy-9J Bench) doctrinal anchor.

Mnemonic: RACE — Rape, Abnormality, Change-of-marital-status, Exceptional cases — the 4 windows under MTP Amendment 2021.

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