Take permission before abortion in pregnancy beyond 24 weeks, hospitals told

Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Panchayat Lavish Ordia has said that private hospitals must obtain permission from the District Medical Board before performing an abortion in pregnancy over 24 weeks.

He was speaking after inaugurating a training workshop on the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act organised jointly by the district administration, the Zilla Panchayat, the District Health and Family Welfare Department, the National Health Mission, the YIMS Yadgir and the IPAS Bangalore Institute of Technology at the Yadgir Institute of Medical Sciences (YIMS) auditorium in Yadgir on Tuesday.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act strictly prevents abortion of pregnancy without permission. The violation of the Act by any hospital will cause imprisonment and the registration of such hospital will permanently be cancelled, he warned.

Mr. Ordia pointed out cases of illegal gender detection and said that private hospitals cannot violate the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act by performing foetal gender detection for any reason and such violations of the Act will be dealt with legal action and punishment according to the Act.

It is mandated that doctors of private and government hospitals must submit information on infant deaths and stillbirths, abortions and other incidents occurring in the district to the authorities concerned.

“Based on such reports, the State government will take action at all levels to prevent infant mortality and maternal mortality, while stern action will be taken against the heads of private and government hospitals that do not submit reports on maternal mortality, infant mortality, stillbirths and abortions,” Mr. Ordia said.

The Chief Executive Officer also told all medical officers to make the full use of this training and provide better healthcare services to the public.

District Health Officer Mahesh Biradar also spoke.

YIMS Director Sandeep Patil, Reproductive and Child Health Officers Malappa K., HoDs Usha, Shivukumar, Pooja, IPAS Technical Institute Coordinator Doddanna Gowda, District Health Education Officer Lakshmi Mundasa, Manohar Patil, Shankarananda, Tulsiram Chavan, private government doctors, Health Department and YIMS college officials and staff were present.