The Bombay high court has said that it may have to consider “the right of the fetus” while examining the plea of an 18-year-old rape survivor to abort at 27 weeks of pregnancy. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act allows for termination of pregnancy up to a maximum of 20 weeks. Abench of justices Abhay Oka and Mahesh Sonak will decide today the petition of the survivor, a Satara-based college student, after the court-appointed medical panel advised against allowing her plea to medically terminate her pregnancy. The survivor’s petition said her pregnancy was the outcome of sexual assaults when she was a minor. According to the rape survivor’s plea, she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance between March and May this year. During the period, he had threatened her with dire consequences, including killing her and her family. When she stopped menstruating, she visited a hospital on July 21 and was told by the doctors that she was five months’ pregnant. On July 22, an FIR was lodged against the accused for rape and criminal intimidation under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, her petition said, adding that the delay in moving the court was caused by her family’s ignorance of the legal procedure for MTP. Her plea said “if she gives birth to the child, it will cause lifelong mental trauma to her” and, therefore, the court should allow her to go in for MTP. On September 4, the judges directed the dean of Sassoon Hospital to constitute a medical board to examine her on September 6. On Friday, the bench perused its report and said the board had advised against MTP. “It has said if she undergoes medical termination of pregnancy, there is a threat to her life,” said Justice Oka. However, the survivor’s advocate Kuldeep Nikam said, “She has a right to life, which includes a right to live with dignity.” The judges said considering the threat to her life, Nikam must take instruction if she “wants to press the prayer (for MTP) or we’ll have to hear the matter”. They said they would have “to record a finding as it also concerns the right of the foetus”. The bench said the matter would be heard in the chamber where doctors from JJ Hospital or St George’s Hospital would remain present.