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: HC permits abortion for 14-year-old rape survivor to protect her physical well-being

The Bombay HC allowed a 14-year-old rape survivor to terminate her pregnancy, prioritizing her safety and wishes despite a contrary medical opinion.

By HT Correspondent
Oct 13, 2024

MUMBAI: Observing that the wishes and safety of the survivor are of utmost importance, the Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday allowed a 14-year-old rape survivor from Thane to get her pregnancy medically terminated, although the medical board had given a contrary opinion.

“In our opinion, the desire and safety of the survivor is of utmost importance than any other consideration,” said the division bench of justice SV Kotwal and justice Neela Gokhale while allowing the 14-year-old to undergo medical termination of her pregnancy (MTP) at JJ Hospital.

Continued: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/mumbai-news/hc-permits-abortion-for-14-year-old-rape-survivor-to-protect-her-physical-wellbeing-101728762015761.html

13.10.2024

India’s Abortion Laws Offer Pregnant Women an Illusion of Choice

Complicated, overlapping and contradictory legislation places decisions in the hands of the medical and judicial establishments

Sohel Sarkar
September 9, 2024

In October 2023, a 27-year-old woman approached the Supreme Court in India with a petition to terminate her pregnancy, which was over 24 weeks. She had discovered it late and was undergoing treatment for postpartum psychosis following the birth of her second child, which left her without the “physical, mental, psychological and financial” wherewithal to continue with a third pregnancy. A two-judge bench initially ruled in her favor, affirming “the right of a woman over her body.”

Yet the law in India only allows for terminations over 24 weeks in cases of fetal abnormalities or to save the life of the mother, and the case was later reopened after a doctor from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a premier hospital and medical college in Delhi where the abortion was to be conducted, asked for a court directive on whether a “feticide” could be performed since the fetus, in her words, was “normal.”

Continued: https://newlinesmag.com/argument/indias-abortion-laws-offer-pregnant-women-an-illusion-of-choice/

09.09.2024

Commentary

1940 Drugs and Cosmetics Act

Abubha Rastogi

All India Institute of Medical Sciences

Asia Safe Abortion Partnership

Center for Reproductive Rights

CommonHealth India

conscientious objection

maternal mortality rate

medical boards for abortion

Medical Termination Of Pregnancy (MTP) Act

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act

sex detection test

Shantilal Shah

Subha Shri Balakrishnan

Suchitra Dalvie

World Health Organization

India – 28-week-old fetus’ right to life trumps right to abort: SC

Dhananjay Mahapatra / TNN
May 16, 2024

Supreme Court upholds 28-week-old fetus’s right to life, denying unmarried woman’s plea to terminate pregnancy under Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act despite provisions for rape survivors and minors to abort beyond 24 weeks. Delhi HC Justice Subramonium Prasad rejects plea for termination citing ethical and legal concerns about feticide. … SC said, "The child in the womb has a fundamental right to life.”

Continued: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/28-week-old-fetus-right-to-life-trumps-right-to-abort-sc/articleshow/110157500.cms

16.05.2024

News

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act

India – ‘24-Week Limit For Abortion Is Obsolete’

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act does not permit abortions beyond 24 weeks, but this limit is obsolete, as abortions can now safely be performed right up to full term, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves says

By Menaka Rao
2 Feb, 2024

New Delhi: On January 23, the Delhi High Court recalled its order granting permission for abortion to a 26-year-old woman. Her husband had died two months ago. She was about 30 weeks pregnant when she approached the court. The earlier order was based on the fact that she had suicide ideation due to her bereavement, but the court turned back on its previous order after doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) raised objections to the late-term abortion saying that the foetus was viable and it could be born alive after the procedure.

This case is similar to the one decided in October 2023 by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, which involved a married woman with postpartum psychosis after a recent delivery. There too, AIIMS doctors had sent clarifications that it was a late-term pregnancy as defined by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 2021 (MTP Act). The Supreme Court not only rejected the abortion plea at the time, but also told the woman to deliver the baby at AIIMS and give it up for adoption if the couple wishes to do so.

Continued: https://www.indiaspend.com/indiaspend-interviews/24-week-limit-for-abortion-is-obsolete-892891

Abortion law in India is changing. Advocate Amit Mishra is at the centre of it all

Debate on woman’s right to terminate pregnancy as against right of unborn child has been gaining steam in India. Dr Mishra says he gets 1-2 cases every month involving these rights.

APOORVA MANDHANI
03 February, 2024

New Delhi: ‘The baby is currently viable — that is he will show signs of life and have a strong possibility of survival — so we would need a directive from the Supreme Court on whether a foeticide can be done before the abortion.’ This is what an AIIMS doctor wrote in an email to the Supreme Court on 10 October last year. The email changed the course of the debate on abortion in India.

The email was written after a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court, on 9 October, allowed a 27-year-old woman, ‘X’, to terminate her 26-week pregnancy.

Continued: https://theprint.in/judiciary/abortion-law-in-india-is-changing-advocate-amit-mishra-is-at-the-centre-of-it-all/1950906/

03.02.2024

News

AIIMS

All India Institute of Medical Science

Amit Mishra

Delhi High Court

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act

India – ‘Fetus is normal’ — AIIMS asks HC to reconsider order allowing abortion for 31 weeks pregnant woman

Delhi HC order allowed abortion citing psychiatric report that woman was suffering from extreme trauma. Hospital's application says 'feticide' in this case 'neither justified nor ethical'.

BHADRA SINHA
16 January, 2024

New Delhi: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has expressed reservations about a Delhi High Court order permitting abortion to a 31-week pregnant woman.

In an application filed Monday before the high court, the hospital said the “fetus is grossly normal” and, therefore, “feticide” in the case “is neither justified nor ethical”.

Continued: https://theprint.in/judiciary/fetus-is-normal-aiims-asks-hc-to-reconsider-order-allowing-abortion-for-31-weeks-pregnant-woman/1925498/

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

A narrow medical view on abortion endangers women’s agency

The sudden concern for 'foeticide' and 'beating heart' can tilt the concern in favour of the foetus — who is accorded personhood — while the full-fledged adult woman as a person is ignored. A similar tilt led to the overturning of women's right to abortion in the US in 2022

Written by Amar Jesani, Sunita Sheel Bandewar
October 24, 2023

In less than a year, pregnant women were made to go through two extremes by the Supreme Court. On September 29, 2022, a three-judge bench of the SC headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), in a case seeking permission for abortion, took a strongly principled stand by pronouncing that, “The right of every woman to make reproductive choices without undue interference from the state is central to the idea of human dignity. Deprivation of access to reproductive healthcare or emotional and physical well-being also injures the dignity of women” (X vs Principal Secretary, MoHFW, GoI).

The optimism due to the recognition of self-determination to abortion lasted for just about a year. On October 16, another three-judge bench headed by the CJI, refused a woman the choice to undergo abortion because her pregnancy had crossed the 24 weeks of gestation — the foetus was medically normal and her mental health condition, though severe, was pronounced to be manageable. The court seems to have privileged a narrow medical opinion against the principled position of giving primacy to the choice of abortion by the pregnant woman.

Continued: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/abortion-narrow-medical-view-women-agency-8995992/

24.10.2023

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act

India – The abortion right need not pit the woman against the foetus

Recent decisions from South Korea and Colombia have recognised that restricting abortion did not really protect the foetus. It simply pushed women to seek unsafe abortions and harmed their health.

Written by Gauri Pillai
October 21, 2023

The abortion right is in a state of flux globally. Much of it has to do with the role of foetal interests (or, in some contexts, foetal life) in setting boundaries to the right. The foetus played a significant role in the 2022 United States decision to roll back the right to abortion and the 2020 Polish decision to prohibit abortions on grounds of severe foetal anomaly. It also posed a challenge to the 2019 South Korean and the 2021 Colombian decisions to fully and partially decriminalise abortion.

In India, in contrast, foetal concerns have historically not been a major part of abortion regulation. At the time of passing the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act in 1971, only two members of Parliament protested against abortion (calling it “murder”). The others endorsed it and affirmed that “there is no violation of the right to life in any manner”. Courts, too, have followed a similar trend. At the very least, they have refused to enter into the question of whether the foetus has a right to life. In 2016, the Bombay High Court categorically decided that the right to life begins only at birth.

Continued: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/abortion-right-woman-against-foetus-8993586/

21.10.2023