India – Karnataka nurse who ‘helped’ doctor perform illegal abortions held

The case will be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Sunday, in accordance with the chief minister’s announcement.

03 December 2023

Bengaluru: Police have tracked down a nurse closely working with Dr Chandan Ballal, who was arrested in the illegal sex determination-cum-foeticide case.

Police say Manjula helped Dr Ballal conduct the illegal abortions and discard the foetuses. She was arrested on Saturday morning from Mysuru and has been taken into police custody, said an officer from the Baiyappanahalli police station.

Continued: https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/karnataka-nurse-who-helped-doctor-perform-illegal-abortions-held-2795396

03.12.2023

News

Dr Chandan Ballal

illegal sex determination

Doctor who did 900 illegal abortions arrested

Bengaluru police have arrested a medical doctor who allegedly performed 900 illegal abortions in the last three years, or 20 every month, under an elaborate sex-determination-cum-female foeticide racket

Chetan B C
Nov 26, 2023

Dr Chandan Ballal and his lab technician, Nisar, were arrested last week, police sources said. Dr Ballal reportedly charged around Rs 30,000 for each abortion.

Continued: https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/doctor-who-did-900-illegal-abortions-arrested-2785849

26.11.2023

News

Dr Chandan Ballal

Mysuru Matha Hospital

Nayam Kumar

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act

Rizma Khan

sex determination

sex selection abortion

sex selective abortion

Reporting on Reproductive Health, Part 4: India’s limited abortion landscape

by MUSKAN BANSAL
Nov 21, 2023

In India, as in many other countries, abortion is a divisive social and political issue. Although it is legal to get an abortion in India, there are many obstacles to obtaining one. The health consequences are worrying, and the legal landscape is complex.

Progressive legislation, such as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, is intended to provide for safe and legal abortions, but a lack of education about reproductive health, and deficiency in healthcare facilities, has limited women’s ability to benefit from the law’s provisions. Meanwhile, cultural norms and taboos around termination and sexuality have led women to deal with unwanted pregnancies in secret, often unsafe ways.

Continued: https://ijnet.org/en/story/reporting-reproductive-health-part-4-indias-limited-abortion-landscape

21.11.2023

Commentary

CommonHealth India

Dr. Alka Barua

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act

India – No proof of abortion done on woman, Bombay HC grants bail to doctor

Rosy Sequira
Nov 18, 2023

A doctor accused of conducting an abortion without the woman’s consent has been released on bail by the Bombay high court. The court noted that there was no evidence linking the doctor to the procedure and that his career would be at risk if his personal liberty was not protected. The FIR did not disclose the date of the abortion or name the doctor, and the woman’s statement to the magistrate contradicted the claimed method of abortion. The doctor’s advocate argued that the woman had previously lodged an FIR of rape, which she later withdrew after marrying the accused.

Continued: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/no-proof-of-abortion-done-on-woman-bombay-hc-grants-bail-to-doctor/articleshow/105303461.cms

18.11.2023

News

Dhairyasheel Nalavade

Justice Milind Sathaye

Asia

India

Law

Safe spaces advocates to senators: Study, don’t shun decriminalization of abortion the moment you hear “abortion”

Friday, November 17, 2023

Advocates for safe spaces called on senators to study and not shun the call for the decriminalization of abortion automatically after remarks made during the Senate plenary debate for the 2024 budget of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

At the debate, senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Jinggoy Ejercito, and Miguel Zubiri took issue with the CHR’s previous position to decriminalize abortion, and moved to defer its budget pending a “strong stand against abortion.”

But safe space advocates, Enough Is Enough Ph (EIE), claim that the senators went on auto mode in shunning the critical issue the moment they heard “abortion” as if it were taboo as they held the CHR budget hostage to forward their anti-progress, anti-women, and anti-poor agenda.

Continued: https://journal.com.ph/safe-spaces-advocates-to-senators-study-dont-shun-decriminalization-of-abortion-the-moment-you-hear-abortion/

17.11.2023

News

Alan Peter Cayetano

Commission on Human Rights

decriminalization of abortion

Phillipines – CHR issues firm stand vs abortion

By: Charie Abarca
November 15, 2023

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Wednesday officially stated that it is against abortion after the Senate deferred its deliberation on the agency’s proposed 2024 budget after learning that one of its officials supports decriminalization of abortion.

“CHR considers paramount the right to life. The Commission similarly adheres to the 1987 Philippine Constitution specifically, to equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception, and is therefore, against abortion, save for extreme circumstances,” said the commission in a letter sent to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri.

Continued: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1860501/chr-against-abortion

15.11.2023

News

Commission on Human Rights

Senate defers CHR budget deliberation over abortion stance

Johnson Manabat, ABS-CBN News
Nov 14 2023

MANILA — The Senate on Tuesday deferred the deliberation on the Commission on Human Rights' (CHR) P934 million budget next year after senators asked for a clear stand on the issue of abortion.

During the plenary debates, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano asked CHR budget sponsor Sen. Jinggoy Estrada about an alleged statement made by CHR Executive Director Jacqueline De Guia supporting the decriminalization of abortion in the Philippines. “Kasama sa pinu-push allegedly is abortion, to decriminalize abortion. May I know if this is true and what is the context of this, is it an official CHR recommendation or is this a misquote?" Cayetano asked.

Continued: https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/14/23/senate-defers-chr-budget-deliberation-over-abortion-stance

14.11.2023

Meet Mumbai advocates fighting against abortion law to bring women justice

29 October, 2023
Neerja Deodhar

Time is of the essence in these cases,” Anubha Rastogi, an advocate at the Bombay High Court, says at her Fort office. Outside, as the clock strikes two, the bells of the Rajabai Tower toll, underscoring the immediacy she speaks of.

Earlier this week, Rastogi and her associate Rachita Padwal represented a woman who wished to end her 26-week pregnancy. Following a medical board’s assessment about the woman’s mental and physical fitness to undergo the procedure, the HC passed an order allowing the termination. But the lawyers’ work didn’t end there; they made additional suggestions about medical boards themselves—typically comprising a gynaecologist, radiologist, paediatrician, among other experts—and the lack of awareness around them.

Continued: https://www.mid-day.com/sunday-mid-day/article/a-suitable-ruling-23317012

29.10.2023

Commentary

Anubha Rastogi

Bombay High Court

medical boards for abortion

Medical Termination Of Pregnancy (MTP) Act

Fake abortion-inducing drugs valued at Rs 40 L seized in Gujarat

The medicines bore the name of the manufacturer as 'Meg Life Sciences, Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh.'

Oct 28, 2023

Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) officials have seized counterfeit abortion-inducing antibiotic drugs and medicines worth nearly Rs 40 lakh from two separate locations in Sabarkantha district of the state.

Two individuals have been detained for questioning in this regard. The seizure was made on October 27, officials informed on Saturday.

Continued: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/fake-abortion-inducing-drugs-valued-at-rs-40-l-seized-in-gujarat-557351

28.10.2023

Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administratio

Banning sex-selective abortion has unintended effects on the health and education of children in India

Anisha Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics Ashoka University
27 Oct 2023

In response to alarming imbalances in its child sex ratio, in 1994 India passed an act prohibiting prenatal diagnostic methods for sex-determination and sex-selective abortions. This column explores the unintended impact on human capital attainment. It finds that the ban led to an increase in female births but also worsened health and educational outcomes for children who were born into intensively treated families. It also identifies a widening gender gap in human capital attainment after the ban. Key underlying mechanisms include increased fertility in families where girls are born, to achieve a desired number of sons, as well as increased discrimination against unwanted daughters.

Continued: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/banning-sex-selective-abortion-has-unintended-effects-health-and-education-children

27.10.2023