A Fuller Right: SC offers hope that right to abortion won’t be restricted by a woman’s marital status

Source: The post is based on the article “A Fuller Right: SC offers hope that right to abortion won’t be restricted by a woman’s marital status” published in the Indian Express on 10^th August 2022.

Syllabus: GS 2 – mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Relevance: About the recent court judgement on abortion.

News: Recently the Supreme Court of India delivered a significant order, that the right to a medical abortion could not be denied to unmarried women.

What is the case?

What are the reasons behind the court ruling permitting abortion for an unmarried woman?

1) The 2021 Amendment to the MTP Act, no longer restricts itself to an unwanted pregnancy between a “husband” and “wife”, but to a woman and her “partner”, by marriage or not, 2) S Khushboo case, 2010: In this case, the court recognised the legality of live-in relationships and pre-marital sex, 3) Suchita Srivastava case, 2009: In this the court recognised woman’s right to make reproductive choices is part of the “personal liberty” guaranteed under Article 21, 4) K S Puttaswamy case, 2017: In this, the court reaffirmed that women’s right to bodily integrity is part of the fundamental right to privacy.

The US court recognised that the constitutional rights are interconnected: Unravel one and the entire edifice of protections could fall apart. Now, the SC offers hope that the right to abortion won’t be restricted by a woman’s marital status.