Kochi: The High Court has said that married woman does not need their husband’s permission to have an abortion. The decision of Justice V Arun allowed a 26-year-old woman to have an abortion after 21 weeks because she is suffering from severe mental problems due to abuse by her husband and mother-in-law.
She was in love with a bus conductor when she was a graduate student and later she married him. But soon the husband and mother-in-law started torturing her by demanding dowry. In the meantime, the husband started harassing the pregnant woman. After the harassment from her husband continued, she approached the family planning clinic at Kottayam Medical College for an abortion. But the doctors sent it back, pointing out the lack of documents of legal separation with her husband. Later, she filed a complaint against her husband and family at the police station. After that, she approached the doctors again, but the doctors refused to perform an abortion on the grounds that she was 21 weeks pregnant and it would affect her health. Then the woman approached the High Court.
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