By Shruti Sneha

Copyright republicworld

New Delhi: On Thursday, the Delhi High Court noted that forcing a woman into carrying on an unplanned pregnancy not only exacerbates her suffering but also infringes upon her right to privacy, dignity, and autonomy as stipulated in Article 21 of the Constitution. The court ruled that all other factors must yield to a woman’s right to reproductive autonomy and physical integrity.Given that the pregnancy was the consequence of sexual relations under the false pretense of marriage and that the petitioner suffered from severe physical and psychological trauma, Justice Ravinder Dudeja permitted a 30-year-old single woman to have a medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) beyond the legal 22-week limit.The court observed that “The suffering of the victim cannot be compounded if she is forced to continue the pregnancy. Apart from the above, the victim is bound to face social stigma, which may not permit the scars left by the defilement of her body to heal. The decision of the victim whether to give birth to the conceived child or to terminate the pregnancy has to be given primacy.” The bench cited key Supreme Court decisions in Suchita Srivastava v. Chandigarh Administration, X v. Principal Secretary, Health & Family Welfare Department, and XYZ v. State of Gujarat, which established reproductive choice as a fundamental right under Article 21. It reaffirmed that, regardless of a woman’s marital status, pregnancies resulting from sexual assault or abuse necessarily do serious harm to her mental health.The petitioner was clinically fit to undergo MTP and had already been hospitalized for the treatment, according to the medical opinion of AIIMS experts, which the court also noted. In relation to the ongoing FIR against the accused, instructions were given to guarantee the preservation and collection of fetal tissue for DNA testing.The court accepted the motion and allowed the termination to be performed immediately at AIIMS Hospital under medical supervision.