{"id":54417,"date":"2020-02-10T17:19:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T11:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=54417"},"modified":"2020-02-26T17:20:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T11:50:42","slug":"7pm-seeking-a-more-progressive-abortion-law10th-february-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7pm-seeking-a-more-progressive-abortion-law10th-february-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"7PM |Seeking a more progressive abortion law|10th February 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context:\n<\/strong>Medical\nTermination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More\nin News:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Union Cabinet has approved the\nMedical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to amend the Medical\nTermination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Background:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Indian Penal Code, enacted in 1860\nbased on British law, declared induced abortion illegal (Section 312),\ndescribing it as&nbsp;intentionally &#8216;causing miscarriage&#8217;. <\/li><li>The penalty for abortion practitioners\nwas either three years in prison, or a fine, or both; for the woman availing of\nan abortion, the penalty was either seven years in prison, or a fine, or both.\nThe only exception was when abortion was induced in order to save the life of\nthe woman.<\/li><li>The Abortion Study Committee, headed by\nMr. Shantilal submitted its report in December 1966.<\/li><li>Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP)\nAct, which was enacted by the Indian Parliament in the year 1971 with the\nintention of reducing the incidence of illegal abortion and consequent maternal\nmortality.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Medical\nTermination of Pregnancy Act, 1971:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Medical Termination of Pregnancy\n(MTP) Act, 1971 provides for termination of pregnancy only up to 20\nweeks.&nbsp;If an unwanted pregnancy has proceeded beyond 20 weeks, women have\nto approach a medical board and Courts to seek permission for termination,\nwhich is extremely difficult and cumbersome process.<\/li><li>According to&nbsp;Section 3 (2) of the\nMTP Act, 1971&nbsp;a pregnancy may be terminated by a registered medical\npractitioner:<\/li><li>Where\nthe length of the pregnancy&nbsp;does not exceed twelve weeks. In this case,\nonly one medical practitioner\u2019s opinion is required that the continuance of the\npregnancy would involve a&nbsp;risk to the life of the pregnant woman&nbsp;(her\nphysical or mental health); or there is a substantial risk that if\nthe&nbsp;child&nbsp;were born, it would suffer from some physical or mental\nabnormalities to be seriously handicapped.<\/li><li>If the foetus is between 12 and 20 weeks old, then the\nprocedure requires permission from two medical practitioners.<\/li><li>Beyond\n20 weeks, Section 5 of the act applies, which permits abortion only in\nsituations where the medical practitioner believes that abortion is immediately\nnecessary to save the woman\u2019s life.&nbsp;<\/li><li>The Medical Termination of Pregnancy\n(MTP) Act clearly states the conditions under which a pregnancy can be ended or\naborted, the persons who are qualified to conduct the abortion and the place of\nimplementation. Some of these qualifications are as follows:<\/li><li>Women\nwhose physical and\/or mental-health were endangered by the pregnancy.<\/li><li>Women\nfacing the birth of a potentially handicapped or malformed child<\/li><li>Pregnancies\nin unmarried girls under the age of eighteen with the consent of a guardian.<\/li><li>Pregnancies\nin \u201clunatics\u201d with the consent of a guardian.<\/li><li>Pregnancies\nthat are a result of failure in sterilisation.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Issues\nwith the Act:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Act thrusts the power of\ndecision-making on medical practitioners, expropriating women\u2019s right to\nautonomy and self-determination.<\/li><li>When a woman is beyond 20 weeks\npregnant, the pregnancy may be terminated only if it\u2019s immediately necessary to\nsave her life. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act of 1971 only\nmakes abortion legal till 20 weeks.<\/li><li>The baby\u2019s physical and mental health,\nwhich is a ground to terminate pregnancy prior to 20 weeks, is no ground to\nterminate pregnancy post 20 weeks.<\/li><li>This artificial distinction is not\nrational, for, medical opinions suggest that several foetal\nfaculties&nbsp;develop much later&nbsp;than the 20 week period. Several foetal\nabnormalities&nbsp;become conspicuous&nbsp;only during late-term pregnancy.<\/li><li>Section 3(2) of the Act, which explains\nthat when a pregnancy occurs due to failure of any birth control device or\nmethod used by any \u201cmarried woman or her husband\u201d, the anguish caused is\npresumed to constitute a \u201cgrave injury\u201d to the mental health of the pregnant\nwoman and thereby can opt for abortion. However, the applicability of this\nprovision to unmarried women is contested.<\/li><li>There are also psychological factors\nlike living in denial, until a time when it\u2019s too late when they finally gather\nthe courage to even think of abortion. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Salient\nfeatures of proposed amendments:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Increased\ngestation limit:&nbsp;<\/strong>The bill has enhanced the upper\ngestation limit from 20 to 24 weeks for special categories of women. It would\ninclude vulnerable women including survivors of rape, victims of incest and\nother vulnerable women (like differently-abled women, minors) etc.<\/li><li><strong>Opinion\nof professional:<\/strong>&nbsp;Bill has proposed requirement of the opinion\nof one doctor for termination of pregnancy, up to 20 weeks of gestation and\nintroducing the requirement of opinion of two doctors for termination of\npregnancy for 20-24 weeks of gestation.<\/li><li><strong>Medical\nboard:&nbsp;<\/strong>Upper gestation limit will not apply in cases of\nsubstantial foetal abnormalities diagnosed by Medical Board. The composition,\nfunctions and other details of the Medical Board to be prescribed subsequently\nin Rules under the Act.<\/li><li><strong>Identity\nprotection:&nbsp;<\/strong>Name and other particulars of a woman\nwhose pregnancy has been terminated shall not be revealed except to a person\nauthorised in any law for the time being in force.<\/li><li><strong>For&nbsp;unmarried\nwomen<\/strong>,&nbsp;the\nBill seeks to relax the contraceptive-failure condition. Earlier&nbsp;\u201conly\nmarried woman or her husband\u201d&nbsp;were allowed to medically terminate the\npregnancy, but the Bill proposes the same for&nbsp;\u201cany woman or her partner\u201d.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"\"><tbody><tr><td>\n \n \n \n \n <strong>Women\u2019s\n right to make reproductive choices:<\/strong>\n The Bombay High Court (2016) and\n Supreme Court (in&nbsp;K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India,&nbsp;2017) have\n both emphasised women\u2019s autonomy to take informed decisions regarding their\n own bodies, fertility, and reproduction. Even when the judiciary has allowed\n abortions beyond 20 weeks, the fact that women have had to move the courts\n highlights a further restriction on their access to safe and legal\n abortions. In a country where 9\u201320% of maternal\n deaths are caused by unsafe abortions (an article for Sebastian et al 2014),\n there is an urgent need to align the provisions of the MTP Act with these\n judgments.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n &nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Abortion\nlaws across the world:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Abortion laws\nvary across the world. It is learnt that about 67 countries prescribe\ngestational limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>52 % of countries including France, the\nUK, Austria, Ethiopia, Italy, Spain, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Norway,\nSwitzerland and even Nepal, allow for termination beyond 20 weeks on the\ndiagnosis of foetal abnormalities.<\/li><li>Some countries go beyond even these\nlimits with laws in 23 countries-Canada, Germany, Vietnam, Denmark, Ghana, and\nZambia-allowing for abortion at any time during the pregnancy on the request of\nthe mother.<\/li><li>In UK, abortions are allowed at up to 24\nweeks, with abortion guidelines including procedures for termination of\npregnancies older than 20 weeks. It also states that, in pregnancy older than\n21 weeks and 6 days, an injection to cause foetal death is given before the\nfoetus is evacuated.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Medical Termination of Pregnancy\n(Amendment) Bill, 2020 is for expanding access of women to safe and legal\nabortion services on therapeutic, eugenic, humanitarianor social grounds. It is\na step towards safety and well-being of the women. <\/li><li>Recently several petitions were received\nby the Courts seeking permission for aborting pregnancies at a gestational age\nbeyond the present permissible limit on grounds of foetal abnormalities or\npregnancies due to sexual violence faced by women. <\/li><li>The proposed increase in gestational age\nwill ensure dignity, autonomy, confidentiality and justice for women who need\nto terminate pregnancy. <\/li><li>Though Medical Termination of Pregnancy\n(Amendment) Bill, 2020 is a step in the right direction, the government needs\nto ensure that all norms and standardised protocols in clinical practice to\nfacilitate abortions are followed in health care institutions across the\ncountry.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:\n<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/seeking-a-more-progressive-abortion-law\/article30777394.ece\">https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/seeking-a-more-progressive-abortion-law\/article30777394.ece<\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 More in News: The Union Cabinet has approved the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.&nbsp; Background: The Indian Penal Code, enacted in 1860 based on British law, declared induced abortion illegal (Section 312), describing it as&nbsp;intentionally &#8216;causing&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7pm-seeking-a-more-progressive-abortion-law10th-february-2020\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7PM |Seeking a more progressive abortion law|10th February 2020<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,955],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-pm","category-7-pm-brief-infograph","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1701060359},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54417","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}