Thiruvannamalai/Chennai: Sex determination test was banned in India in 1994, but an illegal prenatal scanning facility, where sex determination tests and selective abortions were being performed by a quack in Tiruvannamalai, was shut down on 22 August, Tuesday. The facility on Avulkara Street in the town was being run by a woman called Ananthi, who reportedly had studied only up to 8th standard. Raid Sources said, a team led by Joint Director of Medical Services N. Rajendran and a PCPNDT Act squad from Chennai conducted a raid on the facility based on a tip-off, and found six pregnant patients waiting there for scans. Enquiries revealed that they were there to determine the sex of their foetus. However, Ananthi, whom the team managed to round up later, denied the charges. There was a locked room in the building and she claimed that she did not have the key as her husband was using the room. In the presence of Tiruvannamalai Tahsildar Panneerselvam the team then broke open the room and found an ultra-sonogram machine, beds, medicines used for abortion, forceps and gloves. Manual abortions likely Dr. Rajendran said, “Forceps and gloves being found there, apart from medicines used for abortion, suggest they might have been carrying out abortions manually there”. That would have involved a gruesome process of pulling out the foetus from the womb. In police custody Ananthi has been handed over to the police. For very early medical terminations of pregnancies, drugs can be used under medical supervision said Assistant director, GG Hospitals said Priya Selvaraj. “In case surgical intervention is needed in the first trimester, dilatation and evacuation can be performed. Labour can also be induced in the second trimester using drugs. In the event of surgical intervention, in case the mother’s life is in danger, then a mini C-section, called a hysterotomy, is performed. In any of the procedure forceps are not used,” she explained. ]]>
