Longer wait for 32-year-old’s abortion

KOLKATA: The 32-year-old woman, who on Monday was granted permission by Calcutta High Court to abort her 24-week pregnancy, was admitted to the state-run SSKM Hospital on Tuesday, but the medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) didn’t happen during the day.

The process has begun, said hospital sources, although the actual MTP will take place not before Thursday.

“The heartbeat of the foetus has to be stopped before terminating it,” said a senior doctor at SSKM. “Doctors are putting her on medication for this purpose. This medication could take anything between 24 and 48 hours to stop the foetus’s heartbeat.”

The high court, passing its order, had said that the woman should be immediately admitted to SSKM so that she could terminate her pregnancy without further delay. Accordingly, the state made arrangements to carry out the order. The couple reported themselves to the gynaecology and obstetrics department, where the woman was admitted under Dr P S Chakraborty, the department head.

According to doctors, in a normal pregnancy, the foetus’s heart starts beating around the sixth and seventh week. This can be detected by USG. As the foetus grows, the heartbeat gets stronger. Therefore, when it is aborted within 20 weeks, it comes out stillborn. As the gestation period goes above 20 weeks, there are high chances that the heart would beat even after the normal course of abortion.

“In abortions beyond 20 weeks, say by around 22, 23 or 24 weeks, chances that the foetus being alive when brought out of the mother’s womb is high. It might die a few hours after the abortion is complete. But then what to do with it in the interim? There is a dilemma and ethical issues,” said Dr Basab Mukherjee, secretary, Bengal Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society.

MTP experts explained that this was the reason why doctors have to wait for the foetus’s heartbeat to stop before they carry out the actual MTP. They said this was the norm for terminating a pregnancy beyond the legally permissible 20 weeks.

The couple, who stay in Jodhpur Park, had appealed to the court for the MTP after the foetus was detected with an untreatable brain anomaly. They reached SSKM early on Tuesday expecting the procedure during the day itself. But when explained by doctors and counselled about the procedure, their anxiousness eased. The hospital has kept the woman in a single-occupancy cabin.

“Doctors at SSKM Hospital are competent and they are taking the best care for my client,” said advocate Amitabha Ghosh, the woman’s counsel.