Context: Recently,the Supreme Court has allowed a woman in her 25th week of pregnancy bearing twins to medically terminate one of the foetuses detected with substantial abnormalities.

• The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971 bars abortion if the foetus has crossed the 20-week mark.
• An exception to the law is made if a registered medical practitioner certifies to a court that the continued pregnancy is life-threatening for the mother.

Right to health

• The argument for decriminalization of abortion is that – The right to exercise reproductive choice is the right to choose whether to conceive and carry pregnancy to its full term or to terminate it.
• Abortion is argued as the core of one’s privacy, dignity, personal autonomy, bodily integrity, self-determination and right to health recognised by Article 21 of the Constitution.
• Recently in News: Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which has proposed new clauses to increase the upper gestation limit for termination of pregnancy.

Background on Abortion in India

• Abortion in India is legal in certain circumstances. It can be performed on various grounds until 24 weeks of pregnancy. In exceptional cases, a court may allow a termination after 24 weeks.
• When a woman gets a pregnancy terminated voluntarily from a service provider, it is called induced abortion. Spontaneous abortion is when the process of abortion starts on its own without any intervention. In common language, this is also known as miscarriage.
• Before 1971, abortion was criminalized under Section 312 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, describing it as intentionally ‘causing miscarriage’.
• It was in the 1960s, when abortion was legal in 15 countries, that deliberations on a legal framework for induced abortion in India was initiated.
• The alarmingly increased number of abortions taking place put the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on alert.
• To address this, the Government of India instated a Committee in 1964 led by Shantilal Shah to come up with suggestions to draft the abortion law for India.
• The recommendations of this Committee were accepted in 1970 and introduced in the Parliament as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971

• The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 provides the legal framework for making CAC services available in India.

Termination of pregnancy is permitted for a broad range of conditions up to 20 weeks of gestation as detailed below:

• When continuation of pregnancy is a risk to the life of a pregnant woman or could cause grave injury to her physical or mental health;
• When there is substantial risk that the child, if born, would be seriously handicapped due to physical or mental abnormalities;
• When pregnancy is caused due to rape (presumed to cause grave injury to the mental health of the woman);
• When pregnancy is caused due to failure of contraceptives used by a married woman or her husband (presumed to constitute grave injury to mental health of the woman).

The MTP Act specifies –

• who can terminate a pregnancy;
• till when a pregnancy can be terminated; and
• where can a pregnancy be terminated.

Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020

• It is an Amendment to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971.

Proposals of the Bill

• The requirement of the opinion of one registered medical practitioner (instead of two or more) for termination of pregnancy up to 20 weeks of gestation (foetal development period from the time of conception until birth).
• Introduce the requirement of the opinion of two registered medical practitioners for termination of pregnancy of 20-24 weeks of gestation.
• Increase the gestation limit for ‘special categories’ of women which includes survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women like differently-abled women and minors.
• The “name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated shall not be revealed”, except to a person authorised in any law that is currently in force.