An unmarried 25-year-old pregnant woman moved Supreme Court on July 19 to abort her foetus of nearly 24 weeks after the Delhi High Court rejected her plea. The woman also challenged Rule 3B of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003, which allows only some categories of women to seek termination of pregnancy between 20 and 24 weeks. The incident comes weeks after US Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade judgement which allowed abortions after six weeks.
Illegal abortion to Shantilal Shah Committee, the 1960s
Until the 1960s, abortion was illegal in India and punishable under law. Under Section 312 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a woman could face three years of imprisonment and a fine. The discussion of the need for abortion laws started in India in the mid-1960s when the government set up the Shantilal Shah Committee headed by medical professional, Dr Shantillal Shah.
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act came into force on April 1, 1972, and was applicable to the whole of India. It was introduced in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and passed by Parliament in August 1971. The Shantilal Shah Committee recommended the liberalisation of abortion laws in India that will help reduce unsafe abortions and decrease maternal mortality.
Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1972
The 1971 law was founded on the principles of the British Act passed by its parliament in 1967 and it allowed abortion till 20 weeks of pregnancy. The MTP Act, which allowed registered medical practitioners to carry out abortion under certain specified circumstances, granted immunity to doctors performing an abortion in accordance with its provisions from the prosecution.
2002 brief amendment
In 2002, the abortion law was briefly amended to allow the use of mifepristone and misoprostol, two new medical abortion pills at the time.
Amendment of MTP Act, 2021
Under the MTP Act, abortion was always allowed till 20 weeks of pregnancy. However, with different cases and situations, the law was amended in 2021 when the abortion limit was pushed to 24 weeks. In 2008, the Bombay High Court turned down the plea of a couple — Haresh and Niketa Mehta — after they sought abortion as the baby would have been born with a congenital heart block.
In 2020, the Kerala High Court denied permission to a couple to abort their 35-week foetus. In 2015, the Gujarat High Court granted a 14-year-old rape victim to terminate her pregnancy beyond the given limit. The court had asserted that the judgment of the ‘special case’ could not be used as a precedent to grant permission in another similar case.
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act 2021 went into effect on September 24, 2021, following Rajya Sabha’s approval of the MTP (Amendment) Bill, 2021 on March 16, 2021, which received the President’s approval. On March 17, 2020, the Lok Sabha passed the Bill. Under Section 3B of the Rules, the government established seven categories of women who would be eligible for termination of pregnancies between 20 and 24 weeks under the new amendment law.
(a) survivors of sexual assault or rape or incest;
(b) minors;
(c) change of marital status during the ongoing pregnancy (widowhood and divorce);
(d) women with physical disabilities (major disability as per criteria laid down under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016)
(e) mentally ill women including mental retardation
(f) the foetal malformation that has a substantial risk of being incompatible with life or if the child is born it may suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities to be seriously handicapped; and
(g) women with pregnancy in humanitarian settings or disaster or emergency situations as may be declared by the Government.
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