TRICHY: Heeding the orders of the
Madurai bench of Madras high court, the medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) of a 14-year-old girl was performed on Friday at Mahatma Gandhi memorial government hospital (MGMGH) after careful observation of her precarious health condition.
Sources said that the abortion was done in the morning after a day of confusion as the doctors waited for the girl’s health condition to turn favourable after her admission to the hospital on Thursday. Passing an order on August 14 on a plea by the girl’s mother for MTP, the court had set August 16 for the procedure as the pregnancy had entered the 20th week after which it would be risky to abort the foetus. It was AWPS Musiri which brought the girl to the hospital in the morning and admitted her for the procedure. The doctors took preliminary tests and fixed the procedure for Friday.
The girl was the victim of rape by a 56-year-old man at a village near Musiri on the outskirts of
Trichy. The crime came to light after she reached her 15th week of pregnancy on June 26 after which the police arrested the man, a driver in Tamil Nadu state transport corporation (TNSTC) at Musiri. Being a neighbour and friend of her father, the man sexually assaulted her when her parents were not at home.
Initially, the parents of the girl were not for conducting the MTP when the doctors in MGMGH sought their consent. Later, they moved the court seeking a direction considering her under age and the health complications of carrying a baby at a very little age and her future. On August 14, the court gave its permission for the procedure and ordered the dean of MGMGH to carry out MTP on August 16 itself. This was because the dean and head of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology strongly advised terminating the pregnancy before the 20th week that fell on August 23.
On completion of MTP, the samples were to be taken from the girl and the foetus as well as placenta for DNA test. The samples should be handed over to the inspector of AWPS Musiri which will be sent for the test in forensic laboratory, according to the court order.
Citing the MTP Act of 1971 which suggests that abortions within 20 weeks of pregnancy need not require legal permission, advocate A Haja Mohideen, who appeared for the girl, said, “If the pregnancy will put the girl’s life at risk, the child welfare officer has the right to decide and arrange for abortion in consultation with the doctors. In this case, they could have found out a solution earlier already instead of making the parent to run from pillar to post,” said Haja adding that the officials were unnecessarily afraid of legal complications due to their ignorance. However, district child protection officer M Geetha and chairperson of the child welfare committee (CWC) said that they had no powers to decide on the MTP.
Representative image
