India – Forcing woman to continue with pregnancy violates her autonomy: Delhi HC quashes case against woman for lawful abortion

Here is the decision itself.
Decisions about pregnancy and the control over their body, fertility and motherhood choices should be left to the woman alone.

Prashant Jha
09 Jan 2026

The Delhi High Court recently observed that forcing a woman to continue with the pregnancy violates her bodily autonomy and integrity [Sanya Bhasin v The State & Anr].

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said that the decisions about pregnancy and the control over their body, fertility and motherhood choices should be left to the woman alone.

Continued: https://www.barandbench.com/news/forcing-woman-to-continue-with-pregnancy-violates-her-autonomy-delhi-hc-quashes-case-against-woman-for-lawful-abortion


India – How Amended Abortion Law Is Good But Not Good Enough

The amended Act allows abortions up to 24 weeks for certain categories, like rape/incest survivors, minors, or foetal anomalies, with approval from two doctors or a medical board

Dr Nikhil Datar
October 11, 2025

‘Is my baby normal?’ Asha asked tearfully, her hands clenched tightly around her husband’s arm. I replied that we have run the tests twice and confirmed that her baby has hydrocephalus. I was trying to buy time with technical jargon, hoping she and her husband could compose themselves to receive the next piece of news. Even though it pained me to see the shock and disappointment on their faces, I had no option but to proceed with discussing these facts.

Asha’s unborn baby had developed a large head with fluid filling its brain, compressing the developing neural tissue. There was also a cyst on the spinal cord called a meningomyelocele. “Babies with hydrocephalus and meningomyelocele are born alive but will be severely restrained both physically and mentally," I told them. “Sometimes, they are paralysed from the waist down. Treatments and surgeries may help, but often, the outcomes aren’t great."

Continued: https://www.news18.com/opinion/opinion-how-amended-abortion-law-is-good-but-not-good-enough-9629694.html


India – HC pulls up state for delay on minors’ abortion privacy rules

Malathy Iyer
Sep 12, 2025

The state has missed two deadlines set by the Bombay High Court to present guidelines that would balance the requirements of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012 in a manner that the privacy of minors in a consensual relationship seeking abortion is protected.

The amended MPT Act guarantees women the right to privacy and has a provision to fine doctors who reveal their name or other details. The Pocso Act protects children under 18 years from sexual assault/harassment and child pornography.

Continued: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/hc-pulls-up-state-for-delay-on-minors-abortion-privacy-rules/articleshow/123836789.cms


India – Abortion plea by woman held for ‘kidnapping’ 13-yr-old boy: Surat court to hear police’s response today

The teacher was arrested and the boy rescued from Shamlaji, a border area between Gujarat and Rajasthan, on April 29

By: Express News Service
May 12, 2025

The Special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012) court in Surat will on Monday hear the police’s response to the plea filed by a 23-year-woman, who is in jail following her arrest in a kidnapping and POCSO case involving her 13-year-old student, seeking permission to undergo an abortion.

The woman was arrested on April 29 after the boy’s parents filed a kidnapping case against her on April 26.

Continued: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/abortion-plea-by-woman-held-for-kidnapping-13-yr-old-boy-surat-court-to-hear-polices-response-today-9997067/


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


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/


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


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/