Abortion And The Law In India

Abortion And The Law In India

Sangram Chinnappa & Abeera Dubey
10 Jun 2020

On 22nd May 2020, out of barely 30 cases enlisted on the daily board of Bombay High Court, 4 cases were for medical termination of pregnancy. One such case was of a 13-year old minor girl who was 22-weeks pregnant. The petition was filed through the girl's mother, a pavement dweller living in Thane. The girl in the case is a survivor of heinous rape alleged to have been committed by her own father. It has been reported that the father used to regularly abuse the girl, she then moved to south Mumbai to live with her aunt and stayed with her during the lockdown.

On 14th May, the girl told her aunt about the assault, after which she fell ill and was taken to the hospital. She was later diagnosed to be 22 weeks pregnant. When she went with her aunt to file the FIR at Crawford Police Station they wrongly refused to lodge her complaint and directed her to go to Thane Police Station. This was not an easy task as the entire country was in lockdown due to COVID-19. After they finally managed to lodged the FIR at the Thane Police Station under various sections of IPC and POCSO she was taken to taken to a JJ Hospital for an abortion. As she was already beyond the 20 week limit stipulated in the law, her family was informed that their only recourse was to get a judicial order from the High Court. The family which has a tough time making ends meet and without any source of income due to the Pandemic were made to run from pillar to post to find a lawyer who could help them out pro bono as they could never afford the fees for filing a Writ Petition in the High Court.

Continued: https://www.livelaw.in/columns/abortion-and-the-law-in-india-158149


India – Whether You Are Pro Life Or Pro Choice, Morality Should Not Form The Basis Of Your Argumen

Whether You Are Pro Life Or Pro Choice, Morality Should Not Form The Basis Of Your Argument

Monika Rahar in Health and Life, Sexual Health, Women Empowerment
May 20, 2019

The 21st century is a century of transition; the more science is getting involved in the everyday life of an individual the more it is ending up confronting the social and moral narratives controlling individual choices. Law and society are two sides of the same coin. Demand or need of the latter necessitates the formulation of the former and implementation of the former defines or decides the nature of the latter. A change in one is resonated by a corresponding change in the other. India is one of the nations which has taken a progressive stand by Legalising abortion and passing the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (the MTP Act). This act recognised the right of a woman to undergo an abortion if her case falls under any of the categories specified u/s 3 of this act.

This article will address the issue of ‘abortion’ and will look into its meaning, legality, types in medical sciences, the processes employed to procure it and physical and mental implications. More importantly, it will address the question ‘how far will conservative forces go in an attempt to impose ‘morality’ on a changing society?‘

Continued: https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2019/05/legal-dynamism-comes-to-rescue-when-sanskars-human-rights-ideals-of-liberty-clash/


India: Abortion: It’s every woman’s right to choose

Abortion: It’s every woman’s right to choose
According to the latest estimates published in the December issue of The Lancet, in 2015, a staggering 15.6 million abortions occurred in India. Of these 15.6 million abortions, 73% were sought outside health facilities. While unsafe abortions in the country have reduced significantly, about eight lakh women still resort to unsafe means to end an unwanted pregnancy.

Jan 06, 2018
Soli Sorabjee

Last year, in what is considered a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that individual privacy is a “guaranteed fundamental right”. The nine-judge bench ruled that the right to privacy is comprised in the right to life and liberty guaranteed in Article 21 of the Constitution. This judgment will have significant implications for the protection of citizens’ personal freedom against intrusions by the State. While the furore about privacy and its breach began with the linking of Aadhaar numbers with various programmes, the judgment addressed several other issues that the bench believed came under the ambit of privacy. Recognising a woman’s prerogative to make decisions about her health and body, the bench ruled that “there is no doubt that a woman’s right to make reproductive choices is also a dimension of ‘personal liberty’ as guaranteed under Article 21.

continued at source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/abortion-it-s-every-woman-s-right-to-choose/story-52qv723N3yXESybsvyHR0J.html