New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has allowed a 30-year-old unmarried woman to terminate her pregnancy beyond 22 weeks, ruling that continuing it would compound her suffering and subject her to social stigma.
Justice Ravinder Dudeja, delivering the order on Wednesday, held that forcing the woman to continue with the pregnancy would only deepen her trauma. “The suffering of the victim cannot be compounded if she is forced to continue the pregnancy. Apart from this, the victim is bound to face social stigma which may not permit the scars left by the defilement of her body to heal,” the court observed.
The petitioner had been in a live-in relationship for two years after being promised marriage. She became pregnant in November-December 2024 but underwent termination. In June 2025, she conceived again. When she refused to terminate the pregnancy this time, she was allegedly assaulted on May 15 and later abandoned.
Following her complaint, police lodged an FIR under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including rape, voluntarily causing hurt, and criminal intimidation.
In her plea before the court, the woman argued that the pregnancy was a result of sexual abuse and continuing it would cause grave harm to her mental and physical health. She added that although she approached a hospital for termination, authorities sought court permission since the pregnancy had crossed 20 weeks and the FIR was pending.
A medical report from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) confirmed that she was fit for termination.
Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, abortion is legally permitted up to 20 weeks. Following a 2021 amendment, the limit was extended to 24 weeks for certain categories of women, including survivors of sexual assault, subject to approval by a medical board. Courts are also empowered to allow termination beyond 24 weeks in exceptional cases involving foetal abnormalities or risks to the woman’s health.
