Woman aborts in washroom, doctors file complaint

Mysuru, Mar 21: A 35-year-old pregnant woman who checked into the HD Kote government hospital complaining of stomachache, had an abortion, leading doctors to file a complaint that it could be a case of forceful abortion.

Lakshmamma, a resident of Krishnapura village in HD Kote, 200km from state capital Bengaluru, was widowed five years ago. The couple had a child. Police said after her husband's death, she was in a relationship with a man from the same village, who is yet to be traced. The pregnancy is suspected to be a result of this relationship.

It was when she turned six months pregnant and her physical appearance started to change, that she began to fear that villagers and relatives may come to know of her illicit relationship. DHO B Basavaraj said that the woman may have consumed tablets to abort the child. When she was admitted to hospital, she had told the hospital staff that she had a severe stomach ache.

Around 7.30am on Sunday , the woman went to the washroom and returned to her bed after more than half an hour.The patients around her bed asked her whether she was having any trouble, and a few noticed blood stains on her sari.

Dead foetus found:

On suspicion, they opened the washroom door and noticed a dead foetus on the floor. They immediately brought the issue to the notice of duty doctor Ravikumar, who registered a complaint at HD Kote police station against the woman on charges of aborting the foetus.

"We suspect that the woman consumed tablets to abort the child. When she started having pain in her stomach, she got admitted to hospital without revealing the details to doctors there. When she went to the washroom, she aborted," Basavaraj said.

"Doctors also collected blood and visceral samples of the foetus and sent it to the lab for tests. The duty doctor filed a complaint against the woman," he confirmed.

As the woman took ill after the abortion, she is under treatment at the hospital and has not been arrested, HD Kote police said.