‘Ground situation unchanged’: Delhi HC flags ordeal of survivors seeking abortion

18 Apr 2025

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court was recently displeased with its directions not being complied with by the doctors in the national capital for constituting a panel to determine the cases of sexual assault survivors seeking abortion without any delay.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma’s verdict on April 17 outlined the “unfortunate” state of affairs over the compliance of its directions passed on January 25, 2023 and November 3, 2023 through which hospitals were ordered to constitute medical boards to examine sexual assault survivors seeking medical termination of their pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.millenniumpost.in/delhi/ground-situation-unchanged-delhi-hc-flags-ordeal-of-survivors-seeking-abortion-607227

19.04.2025

News

Delhi High Court

sexual assault survivors and abortion

India – Vanishing Daughters Part 4: Testimonies of women who have seen it all

Illegal sex determination and unsafe abortions continue to plague Haryana, claiming lives and exposing systemic legal failures, while women bear the brunt of this gender-biased crisis.

Sreya Chatterjee
Apr 14, 2025

In India’s northern state of Haryana, where the gender ratio has long been skewed against girls, the brutal consequences of illegal sex determination supported by unauthorised abortion are not just reflected in numbers—they are etched in the broken voices of the women left behind.

In this fourth instalment of our investigative series, The Vanishing Daughters, we travelled deep into the villages of Haryana to meet the families and survivors of a war waged silently, but violently, against unborn girls. Their testimonies lay bare a harrowing truth: while sex-selective abortions continue despite legal bans, it is the women—wives, daughters, mothers—who pay the ultimate price of a shady industry exploiting loopholes.

Continued: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/vanishing-daughters-part-four-beti-bachao-beti-padhao-sex-determination-gender-bias-abortion-bride-trafficking-2708865-2025-04-14

India – Haryana govt shuts 300 abortion centres, another 23 issued show-cause notices

The Haryana State Drugs Controller has been tasked with compiling a list of wholesalers and stockists of medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits, restricting their sale exclusively to registered MTP centres.

By: Express News Service
April 13, 2025

The Haryana government Thursday announced that the registrations of 300 medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) centres in the state have been cancelled.

The closed centres had allegedly failed to share and update information concerning its gynaecologists and abortion data, among others.

Continued: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/abortion-centres-shut-haryana-government-notices-9940381/

14.04.2025

India: Why maternal deaths continue to haunt

A recent United Nations report ranks India second in global maternal deaths, an alarming number despite the strides the country has made in reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR). Globally, approximately one woman died every two minutes due to a...

Aksheev Thakur, Tribune News Service
Apr 11, 2025

A recent United Nations report ranks India second in global maternal deaths, an alarming number despite the strides the country has made in reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR).

Globally, approximately one woman died every two minutes due to a maternal cause in 2023, notes the report titled ‘Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000-2023’. While Nigeria saw the highest number of maternal deaths in 2023, India ranked second, sharing the spot with the Democratic Republic of Congo; both accounted for 7.2 per cent each of global deaths.

Continued: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/explainer-why-maternal-deaths-continue-to-haunt/

11.04.2025

News

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

maternal mortality

Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000-2023

Laws and ethics must work together to achieve gender equality

Editorial, By Surjit Singh Flora, statetimes_editor
Mar 23, 2025

Female feticide and sex-selective abortion are major issues globally, worsened by medical advancements like ultrasonography and amniocentesis that allow parents to know the fetus’s sex early in pregnancy.

… A 2022 report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) highlighted India, China, Azerbaijan, and Vietnam as the countries with the most unfavourable sex ratios. In patriarchal societies, the preference for male children, combined with smaller family sizes and sex-determination technologies, has led to a notable demographic imbalance. This imbalance has worsened issues like the increasing trafficking of women, forced marriages, and overall social instability.

Continued: https://statetimes.in/laws-and-ethics-must-work-together-to-achieve-gender-equality/

23.03.2025

Editorial

PCPNDT Act

sex ratio imbalance

sex selection abortion

sex-selective abortion

Surjit Singh Flora

UNFPA

United Nations Population Fund

More people in India are choosing self-managed abortion with pills—and it’s safe

The transformative terrain: An in-depth analysis of trends in self-managed abortion in India using NFHS-5 national data

Ipas
March 19, 2025

Conducted by researchers from Ipas Development Foundation and partners, this study examines national survey data to understand the growing use of self-managed abortion (SMA) in India. The research confirms that SMA—using abortion pills outside of a clinic—has become much more common and is a safe and effective option, especially in early pregnancy.

Main takeaway : More people in India are ending their pregnancies with abortion pills on their own, without seeing a doctor in person. The study found that self-managed abortion nearly doubled between 2014 and 2021, with no increase in reported health complications. This suggests that SMA can be a safe and effective way to access abortion—especially in early pregnancy and when people have the right information and access to quality medication. However, provider-assisted care is still critical, particularly for those who need abortion later in pregnancy. As India’s abortion law now allows abortion up to 24 weeks, it’s more important than ever to expand access to trained providers for those who need them.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/more-people-in-india-are-choosing-self-managed-abortion-with-pills-and-its-safe/

19.03.2025

Research

Ipas

Ipas Development Foundation

self-managed abortion

India – The deep roots of daughter discrimination: Why laws alone can’t stop sex-selective abortion

Saturday, March 15, 2025

By Surjit Singh Flora

What you need to know:
Though laws like India's PCPNDT Act exist to prevent sex-selective abortion, our global community continues to witness the disappearance of millions of daughters.
Legal frameworks alone fail without addressing the deep-rooted cultural values that see daughters as burdens and sons as providers.
Only when we combine legal protections with ethical awakening in our communities can we truly achieve gender equality that values every child regardless of sex.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/the-deep-roots-of-daughter-discrimination-why-laws-alone-can-t-stop-sex-selective-abortion--4962130

15.03.2025

Commentary

female foeticide

gender discrimination

PCPNDT Act

sex selection abortion

sex-selective abortion

Leicester researchers develop lifesaving kits for women in Asia at risk from post-abortion complications

7 March 2025

University of Leicester researchers are behind a drive to provide lifesaving kits for women in India and Bangladesh who are at risk from complications following unsafe abortions during disasters.

Unsafe abortion and post-abortion complications are a leading cause of women’s illness and death worldwide. In low-and middle-income countries like India and Bangladesh, the risk of illness and death is heightened due to healthcare instability, supply-chain disruptions and devastating extreme weather events – all of which are made worse by the rapid progression of climate change.

Continued: https://le.ac.uk/news/2025/march/leicester-lifesaving-abortion-kits-women-asia

07.03.2025

News

lifesaving kit for unsafe abortion

Nibedita Ray-Bennett

Reproductive Health Kit 8

Asia-Pacific: ‘Why young people should have access to all sexual, reproductive health services’|

By Ojoma Akor
Tue, 4 Mar 2025

Experts have said that young people should have access to all sexual and reproductive health services including safe abortion rights.

With regressive reimposition of “global gag-rule”, young people too have called for decriminalization of abortion. They said there is need to make safe and legal abortion accessible globally to all, including the youth.

Six out of 10 unplanned pregnancies are estimated to end in induced abortion, and around 45% of these abortions are unsafe.

Continued: https://dailytrust.com/why-young-people-should-have-access-to-all-sexual-reproductive-health-services/

India – Minor girl raped, forced to undergo abortion; accused man, doctor held

The dead foetus, which was buried at a crematorium in Ulhasnagar, has been exhumed for further probe into the case, said officials

March 02, 2025

Police have arrested a man for allegedly raping of a 17-year-old girl and forcing her to undergo abortion on the basis of fake documents in Maharashtra's Thane district, officials said on Sunday (March 2, 2025).

The dead foetus, which was buried at a crematorium in Ulhasnagar, has been exhumed for further probe into the case, they said, adding that a doctor who provided medicines for the termination of the minor's pregnancy has also been arrested.

Continued: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/minor-girl-raped-forced-to-undergo-abortion-accused-man-doctor-held/article69281365.ece

02.03.2025