Supreme Court Allows Woman To Abort 24-Week-Foetus Without Skull 

New Delhi: A 20-year-old woman in Pune was allowed by the Supreme Court to abort her 24-week foetus which does not have a skull on Thursday.

The apex court relied on the report of the medical board of the Pune-based BJ Government Medical College that there was no medical treatment for the anomaly.

"We consider it appropriate and in the interest of justice to allow termination of pregnancy," a bench comprising Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said. The doctors said in their report that there was a "complete absence of brain and skull" of the foetus and survival rate was minimal.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that the government had, in accordance with the apex court's earlier direction, communicated to all states and union territories to constitute medical boards to deal with such abortion matters. The apex court's order came on a plea of a woman seeking its nod to undergo medical termination of pregnancy on the ground that the skull of the foetus had not formed and the child, if born alive, may not be able to survive.