Karnataka Medical Council comes to rescue of Gynaecologist, says husband consent not needed for MTP

Bangalore: Clearing the rules of Medical termination of pregnancies (MTP) in the country, the Karnataka Medical Council has clearly held that there are no rules mandating that a husband’s consent for pregnancy termination. With this, the state medical council came to the rescue of a state-based gynaecologist who was facing accusations of performing MTP without the consent of a woman's husband

The case dates back to the year 2016, when a Ballari-based gynaecologist had terminated the pregnancy of a female patient in her second trimester. The patient complained of bleeding for 20 days. On examination, the gynaecologist adviced performing dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure to remove the tissue left behind in the womb after miscarriage or childbirth. Both the patient as well as her father provided consent for the procedure and the termination was done.

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The matter turned complicated for the doctor, when later in 2016, the husband of the patient alleged that the procedure was done without his consent, adding that both his wife as well as the gynaecologist had colluded to perform the procedure. The husband further filed the complaint with the Karnataka Medical Council demanding action against the doctor.

The matter was recently decided by the state medical council in favour of the doctor, where the council upheld that neither there was any violation of law nor of medical ethics. TOI quotes the order as stating

"According to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 and Termination of Pregnancy Rules 2003, there is no need to get the husband’s consent while conducting D&C, and in this particular case, since the patient was bleeding, it was an emergency. To prevent further bleeding as well as infection, termination of pregnancy was conducted by the doctor. Hence the complaint is dismissed,”