LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court has ruled that a victim of sexual assault has the legal right to terminate her pregnancy medically, emphasising that forcing her into motherhood would violate her dignity and fundamental rights.A two-judge bench comprising Justices Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Prashant Kumar made the observation while hearing the petition of a 17-year-old rape survivor seeking medical termination of her pregnancy.Citing Section 3(2) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, the court stated, “In the case of sexual assault, denying a woman the right to say no to medical termination of pregnancy and fastening her with the responsibility of motherhood would amount to denying her human right to live with dignity, as she has a right in relation to her body, which includes saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to being a mother.”The petitioner had allegedly been lured by the accused to elope with him. Following a complaint by her father, she was found and subsequently underwent medical examination for acute stomach pain, where it was revealed that she was three months and fifteen days pregnant.
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