Explained | How Did Abortions Go From Being A Crime To Being A Right In India?

India's abortion laws have come a long way from 1862 when abortion could get you as much as 7 years in jail.

VISHNU GOPINATH
01 Oct 2022

In June 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned the decades-old Roe v Wade judgment, which afforded abortion rights to all women, making the matter subject to state laws.

But on our own home turf, on 29 September, the Supreme Court ruled that all women are entitled to abortion rights, whether single or married.

Contiuned: https://www.thequint.com/explainers/explained-history-of-abortion-rights-india

01.10.2022

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history of abortion in India

India Supreme Court

Indian penal code

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act

How the taboo on Hindu widow remarriage led to liberal abortion norms in colonial India

While most abortion cases in colonial India were those of Hindu widows, the colonial state rarely prosecuted them, fearing it would add to their suffering.

Aug 10, 2020
Mitra Sharafi

The contours of gender-related reform campaigns also contributed to the lukewarm nature of anti-abortion efforts. From the early nineteenth century, a series of social movements about women emerged across colonial South Asia. One such movement was the campaign to permit and destigmatise the remarriage of Hindu widows. Traditionally, Hindu women in many upper-caste communities did not remarry after the death of their husbands. They lived under ritually and materially restricted conditions in the homes of their dead husbands’ families. The Hindu remarriage movement focused on the plight of young widows, including virgin widows whose husbands had died before adolescent cohabitation began. Unable to remarry, some widows of childbearing age had extramarital relationships and became pregnant. They turned to abortion to avoid social and economic ruin. Financial support from their dead husbands’ families was contingent upon the widows’ continuing celibacy, although occasionally the courts tried to soften this position.

Continued: https://scroll.in/article/963935/how-the-taboo-on-hindu-widow-remarriage-led-to-liberal-abortion-norms-in-colonial-india

10.08.2020

Commentary

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Hindu widow remarriage

Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of 1856

history of abortion

history of abortion in India

Indian Law Commission

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/

20.05.2019