[Answered] There is an urgent need in our country to shift the discourse on abortions from just being a family planning and maternal health issue to sexual health and reproductive rights issues. Discuss and suggest remedial measures for the challenges in accessing safe abortions.

India was among the first countries in the world to develop legal and policy frameworks guaranteeing access to abortion and contraception. However, women and girls continue to experience significant barriers to full enjoyment of their reproductive rights, including poor quality of health services and denials of women’s and girls’ decision-making authority.

Challenges:

• Poor public facilities: The recent National Family Health Survey 2019-2021, shows that 53% of abortions in India are performed in the private sector, whereas only 20% are performed in the public sector mainly because public facilities often lack abortion services.
• Narrowly addressed: The MTP Act, 2021, is framed from a legal standpoint to primarily protect medical practitioners because under the Indian Penal Code, “induced miscarriage” is a criminal offence. This basis points to a lack of choice and bodily autonomy of women and rests the decision of abortion solely on the doctor’s opinion.
• Not including transgender: This act mentions pregnant ‘woman’ only, thus failing to recognise that transgender persons and others who do not identify as women can become pregnant.
• Shortage of health personnel: India’s inadequate number and skewed distribution of obstetricians and gynaecologists, and inadequate health care infrastructure especially affect the women living in poverty, rural areas, and survivors of sexual assault.

Measures:

• To ensure the fulfilment of reproductive and sexual health rights, country needs to have a well-developed public health system that is capable of providing health care services that are comprehensive, of good quality, accessible to all, free at the point of access, and, above all, accountable to citizens.
• The situation in India shows that one law alone is insufficient and govt. must frame the appropriate law to provide reproductive justice.
• Access to safe abortion services must be strengthened by adequate infrastructure and availability of trained professionals.
• There is need to increase the investment in healthcare sector.

Everyone has the right to accessible, high-quality abortion care and no one should be criminalized for seeking or accessing abortion services. In recent decades, more than 50 countries have liberalized their abortion laws, recognizing the importance of reproductive autonomy in women’s lives, thus India should also move in the same direction.