Can India finally ensure stigma-free and safe abortion access?

The Abortion Rights Alliance will advocate for legal and policy reforms that expand access to safe, dignified abortion care without fear or delay

October 10, 2025

The Abortion Rights Alliance for Inclusion, Safety and Empowerment (ARISE), a national alliance of public health professionals, safe abortion providers, legal advocates, feminist and human rights organisations, was launched to demand urgent, coordinated action to ensure universal, stigma-free access to safe abortion services across India.

Despite the 2021 amendment to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, which has expanded conditional access to safe abortion services for a wider category of abortion seekers, access remains deeply uneven. In a landmark judgement in 2022, the Supreme Court affirmed the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy up to 24 weeks of gestation, within the context of the amended MTP Act, despite her marital status.

Continued: https://www.healthcareradius.in/awareness-and-promotion/abortion-pregnancy

10.10.2025

Abortion Rights Alliance for Inclusion Safety and Empowerment

abortion stigma

ARISE

Asia Safe Abortion Partnership

Dr Kalpana Apte

Dr Suchitra Dalvie

Family Planning Association of India

IPAS Development Foundation

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act

Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act

Vinoj Manning

Could ASHAs bridge India’s abortion support gap? Chhattisgarh shows how

These frontline health workers, with their close knowledge of the communities they work in, could help ensure safe access to the much-needed procedure.

Menaka Rao, IndiaSpend.com
Feb 22, 2025

As a “Mitanin” in Dhamtari town in Chhattisgarh, Bhavika Dhruv has been working with women facing domestic violence for 12 years. Mitanin, or “friend” in Chhattisgarhi, is the name given to Accredited Social Health Activists or ASHA workers in the state.

One such woman Dhruv worked with was her 30-year-old client, M. At first, M did not open up to her, Dhruv said. When M was pregnant with her second child, about three years ago, Dhruv helped take her to the hospital for check ups and delivery, as Mitanins do. It was during these hospital visits that M started talking to her about her situation at home.

Continued; https://scroll.in/article/1079317/could-ashas-bridge-indias-abortion-support-gap-chhattisgarh-shows-how

Why Indian Women Struggle To Get Even A Legal Abortion

While Indian policies talk about comprehensive abortion services even at primary health centres, many villages and small towns do not have these facilities, resulting in people resorting to unsafe abortion services

By Menaka Rao
24 Jan, 2025

As a girl growing up in small-town Uttar Pradesh, Pooja wanted to “get ahead in life”. She wanted to be a working woman, earn a comfortable living, and get out of the confines of her village. But her marriage soon after graduation--when she was just 21--paused her plans.

Pooja, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, lives in Azamgarh’s Atraulia block and has two sons, aged seven and 12 years. “I was stuck taking care of two children,” she said. But she managed to study further and finished her Bachelors in Education while her second son was a baby. Now, after working all day, she studies at night for government competitive exams for teacher jobs.

When she found that she was pregnant in December 2023, she was shocked. She always tracks her periods, and uses condoms. This put a break on her career plans.

Continued: https://www.indiaspend.com/gendercheck/why-indian-women-struggle-to-get-even-a-legal-abortion-939548

Only 1 in 3 people know that abortion is legal in India

Despite abortion being legal in India for the last 50 years, awareness about legality, safety and availability of abortion is quite low, Dr Vinoj Manning told Financial Express.com.

Written by Sushmita Panda
September 8, 2024

Abortion is legal in India, however, its landscape is complex in the country. India’s abortion rate, at 47 per 1000 women aged 15-44 is higher than the global average of 39, according to the 2018 Lancet Global Health report.

On International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September 2022, the Supreme Court of India extended the right to legal abortion to 20 weeks’ gestation for all women and to 24 weeks’ gestation under special circumstances. However, access and awareness of abortion rights continue to be a challenge.

Continued: https://www.financialexpress.com/business/healthcare-only-1-in-3-people-know-that-abortion-is-legal-in-india-vinoj-manning-ceo-ipas-development-foundation-3604710/

08.09.2024

Interviews/Podcasts

28 September

abortion stigma

International Safe Abortion Day

Ipas Development Foundation

lack of information

public support for abortion

American Women Turn to Cheap Abortion Pills From India Post Roe

Mail order businesses in India are shipping the pills to women in the US

By Bruce Einhorn and Dhwani Pandya
November 3, 2022

Angry over the US Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June, Deborah Willoughby wanted to do more than attend a rally or make a donation. So she sat down at her computer and placed an order for a pack of abortion pills from India sold under the brand name Unwanted.

India has many online pharmacies offering to sell mifepristone and misoprostol, drugs commonly used to terminate pregnancies — no questions asked and no prescription required. Plan C, an American group that provides information on how to obtain at-home abortion medication, needed volunteers to test online suppliers’ delivery claims. Willoughby signed up and placed an order via Secureabortionpills.com, which describes itself as an online international pharmacy selling generic drugs.

Continued: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-03/roe-v-wade-us-women-turn-to-cheap-abortion-pills-from-india

India – New abortion rules recognise minors as vulnerable, seek to make services more accessible to them

Jagriti Chandra, NEW DELHI
OCTOBER 30, 2021

The new abortion rules notified by the Government recently recognise minors as a vulnerable category and seek to make services more accessible to them. But social stigma and conflict with POCSO Act, 2012, or the law against child sexual abuse, pose hurdles.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Rules, 2021, define new categories of vulnerable women who are allowed termination up to 24 weeks upon meeting certain conditions and with the permission of two doctors. These include minors, survivors of sexual assault and those with foetal malformation among others. Others may seek abortion up to 20 weeks with the permission of one doctor upon meeting certain criteria…

Continued: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/new-abortion-rules-recognise-minors-as-vulnerable-seek-to-make-services-more-accessible-to-them/article37253176.ece

COVID-19 has “devastating” effect on women and girls

Sophie Cousins, The Lancet
August 01, 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31679-2

Natalia Kanem, executive director of the UN Population Fund, is among experts warning about disrupted health services and a surge in gender-based violence. Sophie Cousins reports.

As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates, fears are increasing about the effect of the pandemic on women's and girls' sexual and reproductive health and their access to care. In response to COVID-19, in March, WHO issued interim guidance for maintaining essential services during an outbreak, which included advice to prioritise services related to reproductive health and make efforts to avert maternal and child mortality and morbidity.

Continued: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31679-2/fulltext

India – The women who can’t get an abortion in lockdown

India's grinding national coronavirus lockdown complicated life for women trying to access safe abortions, and now cities are bringing back restrictions, reports Menaka Rao.

13 July 2020
Menaka Rao

In the last week of May, a 20-year old college-going woman in India's capital, Delhi, found out that she was pregnant.

The woman, Kiran, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, had already taken abortion pills on the advice of a friend who was a doctor. But they did not work and so, her only option was a surgical abortion.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53345975

India – ‘1.85m Women May Have Failed To Get An Abortion During Lockdown’

Sadhika Tiwari
July 5, 2020

New Delhi: In the first three months of the COVID-19 lockdown, March 25 to June 24, 2020, 47% of the estimated 3.9 million abortions that would have likely taken place in India in this span under normal circumstances were possibly compromised. This means that 1.85 million Indian women could not terminate an unwanted pregnancy, concluded a May 2020 modelling study conducted by the Ipas Development Foundation (IDF), India, a non-profit dedicated to preventing and managing unwanted pregnancies. Of these 1.85 million women, 80% or 1.5 million compromised abortions were due to the lack of availability of medical abortion drugs at pharmacy stores, the study found.

The estimation builds on data from telephone surveys of 509 public-sector facilities across eight states, 52 private-sector providers, expert opinion of members of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), sales data on medical abortion drugs, and trend estimation by pharmaceutical industry experts.

Continued: https://www.indiaspend.com/1-85m-women-may-have-failed-to-get-an-abortion-during-lockdown/

India – Covid-19 fuelling mother and child mortality rates

Covid-19 fuelling mother and child mortality rates

Jun 16, 2020
Sanchita Sharma, Hindustantimes

Priyanshi Kol was born in her parent’s one-room hutment in Ansara village in the Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh on May 21 because her mother Shivjanki, 26, couldn’t get an ambulance to reach Sanjay Gandhi Medical Hospital 100 km away.

She died on June 13 from childbirth-related complications. She was 23 days old.

Continued: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/covid-19-fuelling-mother-and-child-mortality-rates/story-NvmX3Cn7KMqlff77R9BoZN.html