3 CHCs in Gr Noida to offer medical termination of pregnancy

Noida: Three community health centres in the district will offer medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) for women as well as rape survivors, a facility that was available only at the government district hospital for so long.
Women willing to terminate their pregnancy within the legal period of 20 weeks can now get it done at the community health centres in Dadri, Bhangel and Badalpur. Since January this year, the health centres in Dadri and Bhangel had been admitting rape survivors or women facing threat to their lives because of a miscarriage.

The health department has said any adult woman willing to terminate her pregnancy of less than 20 weeks will have to give a written consent to the facility.

“There have been many instances in rural areas where young girls have lost their lives because of wrongly terminated pregnancies in private centres. These deaths go unrecorded as the family members do not report them for fear of the society. Earlier, such patients had to go to the district hospital, but they can now visit these health centres as well,” chief medical officer, Anurag Bhargava said.

The identity of the woman undergoing termination of her pregnancy will not be disclosed and only the CMO or the district magistrate would be authorised to get the details.

A source in the Dadri health centre told TOI that as of now, the facility was only catering to adult married women who have had a miscarriage or come with a half-terminated foetus after taking an abortion pill. “Unmarried women who want to do away with pregnancies have not come so far. Senior officials will take a call on such cases if at all they come,” the source said.

Since the start of the MTP procedure in the Dadri and Bhangel health centres, 16 and 75 women have availed of the facility, respectively.