Last month, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled in favour of a woman seeking to abort her 26-week foetus with a congenital defect. The bench stated that a woman has the “sacrosanct right to her bodily integrity”. The judge leading the bench also stated that “the right of a woman to have a reproductive choice is the right of personal liberty”.
Last month, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled in favour of a woman seeking to abort her 26-week foetus with a congenital defect. The bench stated that a woman has the “sacrosanct right to her bodily integrity”. The judge leading the bench also stated that “the right of a woman to have a reproductive choice is the right of personal liberty”.
India has one of the more progressive laws on abortion in the world. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971, allows a woman to get an abortion within the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, if the pregnancy poses a substantial risk to her life, physical or mental health, or to the life of the unborn child. The Act also permits abortion in the case of an unwanted pregnancy following rape or contraceptive failure.
However, abortion is not a woman’s right in our country. She is provided with abortion services only at the discretion of a medical practitioner. While a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy in the first trimester needs the consent of one medical practitioner, a termination in the second trimester requires the consent of two practitioners.
Another limitation in the existing law is the time frame within which a woman can seek an abortion. This is particularly challenging for women carrying foetuses with abnormalities and young girls who are impregnated following sexual abuse, for whom we must reconsider the parameters. Faced with the prospect of having to carry the child till term, women have little option but to appeal to the courts, where, too, permission to terminate a pregnancy is not guaranteed. This year itself, several cases of women and minors approaching courts to seek abortions — on grounds of foetal abnormalities and pregnancies resulting from rape — have grabbed headlines.
In cases of foetal abnormalities, with the advent of newer technologies, there are many congenital defects and complications we can now detect before a child is born. However, some of these abnormalities can only be determined after 20 weeks and not all of them can be treated. In March, this year, the SC rejected the plea of a 26-week pregnant woman wanting to abort her child detected with an underdeveloped brain and distorted spine. Rape survivors, especially minors, are also adversely impacted by this gestation limit, often realising they are pregnant at an advanced stage. We all know of the recent heart-breaking case of an almost 30-week pregnant 10-year-old rape survivor — a child herself — who was denied an abortion in the district courts on the grounds that the procedure could endanger her life. A PIL was filed in the SC to allow the girl to abort, but was subsequently dismissed by the apex court, noting that it was too late. An assessment by doctors said that a medical termination was not safe either for the girl or the foetus. Unfortunately, this was not the last case. Barely two weeks have passed since the verdict, and a 12-year-old rape survivor approached the Supreme Court pleading to terminate her 27-week pregnancy.
During the course of my career, I have seen many women traumatised when faced with the possibility of having to continue a pregnancy after learning that their baby may be born with complications or when the pregnancy is the result of sexual abuse. I do feel that in sensitive cases, involving sexual abuse of minors and foetal distress, expedient decisions should be taken. This will enable women and young girls to get the help they need, at the time they need it.
When denied abortions, women seek unsafe and poor-quality abortion services from untrained providers and consequently experience negative health outcomes.
It saddens me to know that a woman dies every two hours due to unsafe abortions in our country. This is despite abortion being legal in India for several decades. In fact, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, unsafe abortions are the third-leading cause of maternal deaths in India.
The author is President 2017, Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI). Views expressed are personal.
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