The Supreme Court, on April 30, disagreed with an appeal by a medical board, and permitted a 15-year-old girl in her third trimester to terminate her pregnancy. This was the second such case this year alone where the Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has argued for the rights of the foetus. However, the court was informed in a hearing on May 4 that the minor child gave birth to a baby boy on May 2.

The 15-year-old had become pregnant, the petition said, as a result of a consensual relationship with a 17-year-old boy. The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan overruled the Delhi High Court and permitted termination in an order on April 24, which was then challenged by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) seeking protection for an “unborn child”.

Under Indian laws, an unborn child is not considered as a full legal person, though it does have certain rights and protections in a limited context. The rights to a foetus are extended through the mother. Thus, a woman, and not the foetus, is the patient, medical and legal experts explained.

India’s 2021 amendment to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act expanded access to safe abortion by increasing the gestational limit from 20 to 24 weeks for special categories of women, including rape survivors, minors, and women with disabilities and also mandated the establishment of state-level medical boards to evaluate complex cases. However, experts say abortion in India continues to remain a “permission-based” privilege as opposed to a fundamental right. 

A 2025 report, which studied 1,114 cases in the Supreme Court and the high courts between 2019 and 2024, revealed that permission for termination was given in 85% of the cases, whereas, in 949 cases the courts deferred to the opinion of a medical board, effectively turning medical professionals into the final arbiter of constitutional rights. 

Doctors and legal experts point out that this is a dangerous trend because the choice for abortion is taken away from a woman and entrusted to a third-party.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s refusal to entertain a curative plea filed by AIIMS—against its decision allowing a minor to terminate her late-term pregnancy and placing emphasis on a woman’s reproductive right—is therefore a rare instance where the courts have gone against advice given by medical boards.

The court observed on April 24 that burdening a woman with an “unwanted” pregnancy violated her fundamental right to reproductive autonomy under........

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