Abortion in India

Abortion in India is legal only up to twenty weeks of pregnancy under specific conditions and situations, which are broadly defined as:

Recently, the Supreme Court permitted a rape survivor to terminate her pregnancy at 24 weeks, which is beyond the permissible 20 weeks limit prescribed under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.

An adult woman requires no other person's consent except her own.[1]

In many parts of India, daughters are not preferred and hence sex-selective abortion is commonly practised, resulting in an unnatural male to female population sex ratio due to millions of developing girls selectively being targeted for termination before birth.[2] Gender hierarchies, cultural norms, values and image of women in society are very important factors in Indian culture and the topic of abortion is considered very personal. In India, the matter of termination of pregnancy is often not based on the perceptions of the woman herself, rather cultural, religious, socioeconomic and societal pressures play a significant role in influencing her decision.[3]

Before 1971

The Indian Penal Code, enacted in 1860 and written in accordance with contemporaneous British law, declared induced abortion illegal. Induced abortion was defined as purposely "causing miscarriage".[4] The penalty for abortion practitioners was either three years in prison, or a fine, or both; for the woman availing of an abortion, the penalty was either seven years in prison, or a fine, or both.[4] The only exception was when abortion was induced in order to save the life of the woman.[4]

The prevalence of illegal abortions, combined with the idea that abortion could be a mode of population control, caused the government to reconsider the law.[4] In 1964, the Central Family Planning Board of the Government of India met and formed a committee to examine the subject of abortion from the medical, legal, social, and moral standpoints.[4] The Abortion Study Committee, headed by Mr. Shantilal Shah (health minister of Maharashtra) submitted its report in December 1966.[4] This report suggested that the penal code was too restrictive and recommended that the exemptions under which abortion was permissible be increased and liberalised. Many of the report's suggestions were included in the subsequent Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act.[4]

1971 and beyond

The Indian abortion laws falls under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, which was enacted by the Indian Parliament in the year 1971 with the intention of reducing the incidence of illegal abortion and consequent maternal mortality and morbidity.[5] The MTP Act came into effect from 1 April 1972 and was amended in the years 1975 and 2002.

Pregnancies not exceeding 12 weeks may be terminated based on a single opinion formed in good faith. In case of pregnancies exceeding 12 weeks but less than 20 weeks, termination needs opinion of two doctors.[1] The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act of India clearly states the conditions under which a pregnancy can be ended or aborted, the persons who are qualified to conduct the abortion and the place of implementation.[6] Some of these qualifications are as follows:

Statistics

Ipas India reported in 2013 that unsafe abortions killed one woman for every two hours in India (approximately 4,000 deaths a year), according to estimates and calculations correlating data on maternal mortality ratio and Sample Registration System (SRS) data. A Lancet paper in 2007 said there were 6.4 million abortions, of which 3.6 million or 56 per cent were unsafe. Based on the then available latest population and crude birth rate figures, Ipas put the figures of induced abortion at 5,007,932.[7] According to 2011 Census, institutionalized abortion varied among Indian States from 32 per cent in Chhattisgarh to 73.9 per cent in Assam.

In Bihar and Jharkhand, access to safe abortion services is also limited, with the two states reporting only 146 out of a total of 12,510approved medical termination of pregnancy centres in India as of 2008 (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare 2009).[8]

These two states also have one of the lower literacy rate and the population in both states is very high as compared to other states which can be one of the main reason of such a high rate of pregnancy termination as people are not informed enough.

Sex-selective abortion

Pre-natal diagnostic techniques like Medical Ultrasonography are capable of determining the sex of the fetus. In many parts of India, daughters are not preferred and hence sex-selective abortion is commonly practised, a form of Gendercide, resulting in an unnatural male to female population sex ratio due to millions of developing girls being terminated before birth. According to The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques(Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Amendment Act, 2002 the following are cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable offences

Providers are punishable by three years imprisonment and a Rs. 10,000 fine (five years imprisonment and a Rs. 50,000 fine for subsequent offence); those who seek aid are punishable with a term that may extend to three years and a fine that may extend to Rs 50,000 for the first offence and for any subsequent offence with imprisonment which may extend to five years and with fine which may increase to Rs. 100,000.

Implementation

Unsafe abortions continue to outnumber safe and legal abortions. The Central government constituted an expert committee in the year 2010 to make recommendations.

References

  1. 1 2 http://m.icma.md/country/IN/
  2. ↑ The Economist. The War on Baby Girls: Gendercide. 4 March 2010 http://www.economist.com/node/15606229
  3. ↑ BHULLAR, DS; AGGARWAL, KK; MEHTA, N. LEGAL AGE LIMIT FOR ABORTING DYING FOETUS: A REVIEW. Journal of Punjab Academy of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology. 16, 1, 4-7, Jan. 2016. ISSN 0972-5687.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Chandrasekhar, S. India's Abortion Experience Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 1994.
  5. ↑ "India". UN. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  6. ↑ "Medical Termination of Pregnancy, 1971". Medindia.com. Retrieved 10 December 2008.
  7. ↑ Menon, Meena (6 May 2013). "‘Unsafe abortions killing a woman every two hours’". The Hindu. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  8. ↑ Kalyanwala, S., Jejeebhoy, S. J., Francis Zavier, A. J., & Kumar, R. (2012). Experiences of unmarried young abortion-seekers in Bihar and Jharkhand, India. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 14(3), 241-255. doi:10.1080/13691058.2011.619280

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