Even as the statewide drive to save the girl child and to catch doctors guilty of female foeticide gathered speed over the last year with raids and inspections on sonography and abortion centres, many doctors refused to conduct abortions that were legal.
So what happens in an emergency situation when a pregnant woman needs to undergo a medical termination of pregnancy for health reasons but her doctor is too scared of the authorities to do it?
To study this and several other issues that cropped up after the state’s foeticide drive, city-based NGO, Samyak conducted a multi-district study on the subject of rights of women to have legal abortions and the impact of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) drive on exercising this right.
Executive director of Samyak, Anand Pawar said that the study was being conducted in a few urban pockets of Maharashtra where sex ratios were most skewed including Pune, Solapur, Kolhapur etc.
“Initially we trained a few volunteers to carry out this qualitative study by sensitively interviewing affected women. While the state government’s drive was welcome and much needed to keep a check on falling sex ratios, it has led to the criminalisation of all abortions, even those that are legal. Either out of fear or to mount pressure on authorities, many doctors stopped doing MTP. Even chemists stopped the sale of MTP kits to doctors, which created a big shortage in the market.
Those who were most affected were pregnant women especially those who needed to abort for medical reasons,” said Pawar.
Stating that the report would bring out certain shocking facts, he said that there had been few instances where women were in a serious condition but were denied abortions.
“If medically indicated and done for right reasons, MTP is the right of a woman. This right was denied or compromised with on several instances. Our report not only hopes to document all the hardships but help decision makers in taking a holistic view of these situations and come up with solutions,” added Pawar.
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