In India, it is illegal to abort a fetus and the circumstances under which a pregnancy can be terminated are governed by the terms of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971. Section 3 of the Act provides that where the term of pregnancy is less than 12 weeks then if it is the opinion of one medical practitioner and where it is longer than 12 weeks but less than 20 weeks and two medical practitioners are of the opinion that the pregnancy may be:
(1) harmful to the life of the mother or cause her grave mental or physical injury
(2) the child that will be born would have such physical or mental abnormality that it will be handicapped
(3) the pregnancy is a result of rape (explanation 1 puts it under the category of mental injury to the mother)
(4) the pregnancy is a result of failure of contraceptive methods (explanation 2 puts it under the category of injury to mental health)
the pregnancy can be terminated at a hospital established or maintained by the government or any place approved by the government for this purpose.(section 4)
The law further provides that in case of the pregnant woman being a minor, pregnancy cannot be terminated without the consent of her guardian.
The purpose of this law is to prevent sex selective abortions but it has not proved successful in that case as a large number of illegal abortions are rampant. The law has not prevented female feticide but has rather brought hardship to people who genuinely want to end a pregnancy for reasons other than those expressly mentioned including any social or economic hardships that the pregnancy may result in.
Still, the law permits the abortions in cases of rape or abnormality in the fetus, so if the courts refuse to grant permission to abort where the rape survivor is a minor or where fetus carries genetic disorders, it goes against the letter and spirit of law.
The right to abort should be more pro choice as every person has different circumstances and may not be capable of bringing another life into this world or would have faced great hardships because of the child birth. Instead of banning abortions, government should lay greater emphasis on contraceptive means, lay stress on sex education in schools and promote a safer atmosphere for children.
(1) harmful to the life of the mother or cause her grave mental or physical injury
(2) the child that will be born would have such physical or mental abnormality that it will be handicapped
(3) the pregnancy is a result of rape (explanation 1 puts it under the category of mental injury to the mother)
(4) the pregnancy is a result of failure of contraceptive methods (explanation 2 puts it under the category of injury to mental health)
the pregnancy can be terminated at a hospital established or maintained by the government or any place approved by the government for this purpose.(section 4)
The law further provides that in case of the pregnant woman being a minor, pregnancy cannot be terminated without the consent of her guardian.
The purpose of this law is to prevent sex selective abortions but it has not proved successful in that case as a large number of illegal abortions are rampant. The law has not prevented female feticide but has rather brought hardship to people who genuinely want to end a pregnancy for reasons other than those expressly mentioned including any social or economic hardships that the pregnancy may result in.
Still, the law permits the abortions in cases of rape or abnormality in the fetus, so if the courts refuse to grant permission to abort where the rape survivor is a minor or where fetus carries genetic disorders, it goes against the letter and spirit of law.
The right to abort should be more pro choice as every person has different circumstances and may not be capable of bringing another life into this world or would have faced great hardships because of the child birth. Instead of banning abortions, government should lay greater emphasis on contraceptive means, lay stress on sex education in schools and promote a safer atmosphere for children.
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