Cabinet approves amendments to abortion bill seeking to raise upper limit to 24 weeks

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 which seeks to increase the limit on termination of pregnancy from 20 to 24 weeks if passed in the parliament.

The bill is meant to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 and will be introduced in the upcoming budget session of the parliament. It will also discourage informal termination of pregnancies and reducing the maternal mortality rate.

Addressing the media at New Delhi, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said that in order to initiate the medical termination for pregnancy, permission is required from two doctors, out of which one must be a government doctor.

"The limit for abortion has been increased from 20 weeks to 24 weeks. There was a demand from a section of women, doctors and court had also requested the same," he said. The extension in abortion upper limit will help victims of rape, girls with disabilities as well as minors, who may not realise they are pregnant until later," Javdekar said.

The bill also increases the ambit of the contraceptive-failure condition from “only married woman or her husband” to “any woman or her partner” thus allowing any women to medically terminate her pregnancy.

The amendment was approved upon consultation with the Group of Ministers.   

Here are the features of the proposed amendments to the bill:

• Proposing requirement for the opinion of one provider for termination of pregnancy, up to 20 weeks of gestation and introducing the requirement of the opinion of two providers for termination of pregnancy of 20-24 weeks of gestation.

• Enhancing the upper gestation limit from 20 to 24 weeks for special categories of women which will be defined in the amendments to the MTP Rules and would include 'vulnerable women including survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women (like differently-abled women, Minors) etc.

• Upper gestation limit not to apply in cases of substantial foetal abnormalities diagnosed by Medical Board. The composition, functions and other details of Medical Board to be prescribed subsequently in Rules under the Act.

• Name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated shall not be revealed except to a person authorised in any law for the time being in force.

According to a press release, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 is for expanding access of women to safe and legal abortion services on therapeutic, eugenic, humanitarian or social grounds. Recently several pleas were filed in courts seeking permission for abortion at a gestational age beyond the present permissible limit on grounds of foetal abnormalities or pregnancies due to sexual violence faced by women.