India, Jan. 31 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down a request by a 26-year-old woman seeking permission to abort her 32-week pregnancy, citing mental trauma and depression after the death of her husband.

The top court held that courts have a duty to take care of the interests of both, a mother and an unborn child, an observation that came after a medical board from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which examined the petitioner, said that an abortion at this stage would endanger the woman's health and cause the child to be born anyway but with the likelihood of severe disabilities.

The order strikes at the heart of the complicated question around abortion and its timing. The law allows pregnancies to be termi...