Abortion laws
- Kartikey Goel
- Feb 17
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 18
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021, also known as the MTP Act, and The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, are the two main pieces of law that govern reproductive rights in India now. However, these rights are not all-inclusive.
MTP Act has been criticism for not adopting a rights-based approach because:
1. It does not fully confer the power of termination on the expectant mother.
2. It forces pregnant women to face structural obstacles.
3. 'Women' is used in this sentence. Other genders, such as transgender people and non-binary people, who are capable of producing children are not included in this word.
4. Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) are the ones who will make the final decision about terminating the pregnancy.
There are several reasons to terminate a pregnancy, including serious risk to the expectant mother's bodily or mental health, fetal abnormalities, rape or coercion, contraceptive failure, etc.
However, despite all of these events, India continues to face problems related to its socioeconomic status and educational system, including a lack of RMPs, expensive private hospitals and health centres, subpar government hospitals and health centres, and more. Women in India therefore resort to risky and illegal abortion practices.
The National Family Health Survey from 2017 to 19 found that 27% of abortions were performed at home by the women themselves.
According to the United Nations Population Fund's State of the World Population Report, unsafe abortion is one of the top three causes of maternal death, and 8 women die every day in India as a result of unsafe abortions between 2007 and 2011.
Speaking about the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act of 2021, there are a number of flaws in this legislation as well, including:
1. Ignores privacy,
2. Utilizes the reproductive labour of women,
3. Only heterosexual married couples are eligible to become expectant parents (under specific conditions),
4. Altruistic surrogacy robs women of their right to be paid for their reproductive work;
5. The law demands intended parents to disclose their identities and their infertility;
6. It also mandates that the surrogates identify be disclosed; etc.
The issue of abortion in India is complicated. The skewed sex ratio is evidence of the prevalence of unsafe abortion and female feticide. Both the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act and the MTP Act still have holes that need to be filled.
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