DCW demands closure of illegal abortion clinics

 Citing a recent series of reports in Deccan Herald, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has written to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to take action against clinics conducting illegal abortions in the national capital.

“It is shameful that such illegal activities are thriving in the city. Determining the sex of unborn children is not restricted to only the illiterate sections of the society. Several such illegal clinics are functioning in posh colonies and commercial market areas in the city,” said DCW head Barkha Singh.

She demanded that immediate steps be taken to shut down the clinics secretly carrying out sex-selective abortions in the city.

“The major problem is these clinics are secretly carrying out ultrasound tests and telling parents the sex of the foetus. This practice is not only illegal but also ethically unacceptable. Such sex-selective abortions are leading to a skewed sex ratio in the capital,” she said.

Singh added that it was appalling that such practices are prevalent despite existing laws banning female foeticide in the country.

Posing as an unmarried couple or relatives of a woman seeking to abort a female foetus, Deccan Herald had found that quacks were willing to perform abortions on women well into their pregnancies for as little Rs 10,000.

Health experts said such unsafe abortions contribute to high a mortality rate among pregnant women.

A doctor at a south Delhi clinic agreed to carry out female foeticide for Rs 20,000. Doctors also disclosed names of private hospitals where they were ready to conduct the abortion at over 18 weeks.

The rates for carrying out an abortion went up with the advancing stages of pregnancy. 

The existing “stringent” laws clearly didn’t deter the doctors.

With several departments expected to work in coordination to clamp down on these illegal clinics, little initiative is taken.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recently said decoy operations on clinics can help curb illegal activities.
 Only a registered doctor is allowed to conduct abortion, and that too in the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy. 

A foetus can be aborted till 20 weeks, but only when there is a life-threatening situation for the mother or the unborn child. In any case, determination of gender of the foetus is illegal.