The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the plea of a woman who is in her 24 week of pregnancy, seeking permission for an abortion, after she challenged the constitutional validity of the abortion laws in India.
The hearing is scheduled on Thursday by bench headed by Justice Dipak Mishra.
According to medical reports of the petitioner, the foetus has abnormalities and can lead to mental distress to the mother, news reports said.
Challenging the constitutional validity of Section 3(2) that deals with Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, the petition demands the 'unconstitutional' law be scrapped.
According to an IndiaToday report, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves argued that existing laws do not permit an abortion after twenty weeks of pregnancy.
Calling abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy unreasonable, arbitrary, harsh, discriminatory and violative of right to life and equality, the constitution bans it.
Even though 2.3 percent of the total 26 billion child births in India each year suffer from severe medical abnormalities, as per the current laws, women are not allowed to abort their child.
