The Bombay high court allowed a 33-year-old woman, who is in her 30th week of pregnancy, to undergo an abortion as a medical test had revealed that the foetus has a developmental birth defect. A division bench of justice AS Oka and justice AS Gadkari also granted the woman's request to undergo the abortion at a private clinic in Nashik. On the high court's direction, doctors at the government-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai had examined her and approved the abortion at such a late stage, considering the condition of the foetus. However, the government had opposed her request to undergo abortion at the Nashik clinic. She should be directed to undergo abortion at a government hospital as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act mandates that the procedure must be performed only at government hospitals or private hospitals recognised for this purpose by the government, it said. In Maharashtra, private clinics and hospitals which perform MTP are required to be certified by civic bodies.