{"id":267449,"date":"2023-11-02T19:40:15","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T14:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=267449"},"modified":"2023-11-02T19:40:15","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T14:10:15","slug":"on-reproductive-rights-of-women-impacting-a-womans-freedom-to-reproductive-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/on-reproductive-rights-of-women-impacting-a-womans-freedom-to-reproductive-choices\/","title":{"rendered":"On reproductive rights of women \u2013 Impacting a woman\u2019s freedom to reproductive choices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/strong>This post on the reproductive rights of women has been created based on the article \u201cImpacting a woman\u2019s freedom to reproductive choices\u201d<\/strong> published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 2nd<\/sup> November 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Social Justice \u2013 Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of vulnerable sections<\/strong> (Women).<\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>:\u00a0This article discusses the shortcomings in the recent Supreme Court judgment in X vs Union of India<\/strong> which denied the termination of a 26-week long pregnancy.<\/p>\n

A detailed article on Abortion Laws In India<\/strong> can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Abortion laws in India are in focus after the Supreme Court declined a married woman\u2019s plea to abort (medically terminate) her 26-week pregnancy<\/strong>. In X vs Union of India<\/strong>, the woman had approached the Supreme Court seeking abortion, as she was already a mother of two and was suffering from post-partum depression after the birth of her second child.<\/p>\n

What are the shortcomings in the judgment?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to the author, the Supreme Court judgment is flawed on the following counts:<\/p>\n

1) Primacy given to<\/strong> foetus\u2019 rights over woman\u2019s rights: <\/strong>The judgment places the rights of a foetus above that of the rights of a pregnant woman to her privacy and dignity.<\/p>\n

2) Lack of discussion on whether reproductive rights are fundamental right: <\/strong>If the right to freely make reproductive choices was considered a fundamental right, the Court should\u2019ve issued directions beyond the MTP Act\u2019s remit.<\/p>\n

3) Contradicts the right to privacy and dignity: <\/strong>In\u00a0X vs The Govt. of Delhi,<\/strong> the Court held that the right to privacy, as part of Article 21\u2014enabled individuals to exercise autonomy over their body and mind and<\/strong> allowed women complete freedom to make reproductive choices<\/strong>. But the ruling fails to acknowledge this.<\/p>\n

4) A<\/strong>ssertion that foetuses have constitutional rights:<\/strong> The guarantees of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution \u2014 the rights to equal protection and life \u2014 are conferred on persons, and the Constitution does not award personhood to a foetus.<\/p>\n

Question for practice:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you think Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in X vs Union of India may undermine the reproductive rights of women? Provide justification for your arguments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post on the reproductive rights of women has been created based on the article \u201cImpacting a woman\u2019s freedom to reproductive choices\u201d published in The Hindu on 2nd November 2023. UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Social Justice \u2013 Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of vulnerable sections (Women).… Continue reading On reproductive rights of women \u2013 Impacting a woman\u2019s freedom to reproductive choices<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230],"tags":[212,232,10498],"class_list":["post-267449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-social-justice","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":30,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698952777},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}