Abortion case: Niketa Mehta suffers miscarriage

In a case that led to a nation-wide debate on abortion law, the Mehtas had filed a petition on learning about the complete congenital heart blockage during an echocardiogram in her 24th week of pregnancy. Their lawyer pleaded that extensive surgeries to implant a pacemaker and then further surgeries to change the pacemaker every five years would be economically unviable for the Mehtas, as well as traumatic for the child.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, does not permit a termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks.

Dr Nikhil Datar, 31-year-old Niketa’s gynaecologist and a co-petitioner in the case, said the family had not informed him about the development.

Meanwhile, Dr Datar said he was still keen to take the matter forward with an appeal to the apex court. “We have not received a copy of the High Court order. We can move this forward only after we get a copy,” he said.

Dismissing an application by Mehta, the court had observed that medical experts did not express any “categorical opinion that if the child is born it would suffer from serious handicaps.”

A day after her plea for medical termination of pregnancy was rejected, Niketa had said: “I didn’t want a nationwide discussion on abortion laws. I wanted a decision on my abortion. But now I will try to be happy and bring my child to this world.”