Amending abortion law long overdue

A recent Supreme Court ruling allowing a rape survivor to abort in the 24th week of her pregnancy underscores the urgent need to amend The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971. The Act allows a woman to terminate her pregnancy up to the 20th week only. This 20th week ceiling is untenable today. In 1971, there were no ultrasounds or foetal monitors to map the development of the foetus or detect abnormalities, especially those that become evident only in the last few months. That has changed today with medical technology improving by leaps and bounds. Prenatal diagnostics can determine the height, weight, size of the brain and detect Down’s Syndrome, congenital heart defects and problems in kidney functioning. However, foetal abnormalities show up only after the 18th week, giving the parents and the doctor a very narrow window in which to exhaust all available options before taking the difficult decision to terminate pregnancy. It is for this reason that doctors and activists have called for raising the time ceiling on termination of pregnancies. Responding to this demand, the Union Ministry for Health drafted in 2014.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2014, which provides for termination of pregnancies up to the 24th week under special circumstances. The decision to permit abortion between weeks 20 and 24 can be taken “in good faith” by a healthcare provider if, among other conditions, pregnancy involves substantial risk to the mother or child, or if it is “alleged by the pregnant woman to have been caused by rape,” it says. However, parliament is yet to enact this legislation.

While the bill gathers dust, people are being put through immense anguish and trouble. On discovering foetal and other abnormalities, women have rushed to the courts to be permitted to terminate the pregnancy. This has met with differing outcomes. Deciding to terminate a pregnancy is not an easy one for parents and they should not have to run from pillar to post to do this. An amended law would spare them this added anguish. Legalising abortion till the 24th week will remove the need for desperate women to turn to quacks. In a country where unsafe abortions account for 58% of maternal deaths, retaining laws that force women to opt for unsafe abortions is unconscionable. Opponents of the proposed legislation argue that those keen on sex-selective abortion will misuse the law. This is a flawed argument. If the government is anxious to prevent misuse, it needs to enforce more robustly laws that forbid sex selective abortion. A woman’s right to legal and safe abortion cannot be held hostage to fears of misuse.