Bombay High Court seeks State's response on suggestions to create awareness about medical boards to terminate pregnancies

The Bombay High Court recently asked the Maharashtra government to consider the suggestions submitted by a lawyer for creating awareness among public about the medical boards set up for medical termination of pregnancies. .A bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse asked the additional government pleader to respond to the suggestions by petitioner, advocate Anubha Rastogi, who informed the court that despite the amendments to Section 3 of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP Act), medical boards have not been set up at various places.She also pointed out that even though few boards have been set up, people are not aware of the same.She, therefore, requested the Court to issue directions for setting up of medical boards. .Rastogi put forth the following suggestions:Share the list of medical boards with their contact information with all kinds of government hospitals and public healthcare centres;Providing the information with the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists (FOGSI) Maharashtra, so that even private doctors can refer to the medical board for considering termination of pregnancy as per law;Give a list of the medical boards to radiologist or sonologists so that they can share the same the patients after an anomaly is detected in the foetus; The information could be provided on a poster of the Government of India and can be translated into various local languages. This information can be disseminated to district and sub-district level functionaries having direct interface with the beneficiaries and their families;ASHA workers can be provided with this information as they are other mandated to provide information on contraception, immunization and vaccination..The division bench will now take up the matter on November 7, 2023..The issue came to fore after Rastogi approached the court for her client, a 32 year old woman, seeking permission to terminate the client's 26-week pregnancy.After recommending the woman to a medical board with the State-run JJ Hospital, the board found that the woman fit to undergo the procedure.On August 30, the court was informed that the woman had undergone the termination procedure and the child was not born alive.It was after this that Rastogi pointed out about the requirement of awareness regarding medical boards for abortions.