Context: Recently, a three-judge bench of Supreme Court has urged a married woman to reconsider her decision to abort her Pregnancy which has crossed twenty-six weeks.

• Medical termination of pregnancy in India is governed by Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971.
• Section 3 of MTP Act deals with the termination clause, the pregnancy can be terminated if:
•  Length of pregnancy does not exceed twenty weeks (requires opinion of one practitioner) or
• Twenty to twenty-four weeks (requires opinion of at least two practitioners) that:
  • Continuance of pregnancy would involve life risk for the pregnant woman or of grave injury to her physical or mental health.
  • Or if the child were born, it would suffer from serious physical or mental abnormalities.
• Beyond 24 weeks if the termination is recommended by a Medical Board after diagnosis of substantial fetal abnormalities.

Issues with respect to the time frame

(twenty-six weeks) for termination of pregnancy:

• Women’s right to reproductive choices is part of ‘personal liberty’ under Article 21 of Constitution  as observed in Suchita Srivastava vs Chandigarh administration case.
• Socio-economic and mental health condition: In XYZ v. Maharashtra, a minor was allowed to terminate her pregnancy in 26^th week after considering her socio-economic and mental health condition.
• Right to privacy: In KS Puttaswami case, SC held that right to privacy enables individual to retain and exercise autonomy over body and mind.
• Laws in over 60 countries allow women to get an abortion on request at any point in the gestation period.
• Rights of unborn child: State also has to think about the rights of unborn child, there is an ethical dilemma to strike a balance between the rights of mother and rights of unborn child.

Critical appraisal

• Unsafe and illegal abortions: As per a lancet study in 2018, there are around 16 million abortions accessed in India, 73% of which were medicated abortions accessed outside health facilities.
• Shortage of doctors: MoH&FW 2019-20 report on Rural Health Statistics indicates that there is a 70% shortage of obstetrician-gynecologists in rural India, pushing women for illegal abortions and high maternal mortality.
• Since law does not permit abortion at will, it pushes women towards illicit and unsafe conditions.
• Lack of comprehensive sex education: In India, lack of sex education contributes to unplanned pregnancies, and the MTP Act alone is not enough to address this issue.
• Sex-selective abortions: There is need to strike a balance between female reproductive rights keeping in mind that the rights do not lead to increased female feticide.

Way forward

• In India, where sex selective abortions are prevalent, the state needs to be watchful of anything that might be adversarial for efforts against female feticide.
• There is a need for increasing awareness and information dissemination with respect to responsible sexual conduct and reducing unwanted pregnancies.
• State must ensure that all parts of society are able to access contraceptives to avoid unintended pregnancies.
• Medical facilities and Registered Medical Practitioners must be present in each district and are affordable to all.
• Treatment must not be denied based on one’s caste or other socio-economic factors.