All women, married or unmarried, entitled to legal abortion: SC

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India on Thursday ordered that all women are entitled to safe to a safe and legal abortion process. A three-judge bench ruled that the distinction between married and unmarried women is unconstitutional. The top court stated that the 2021 Amendment in the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP Act) does not differentiate between married and unmarried women.

Context

The landmark verdict came on a petition by a 25-year-old unmarried woman who had appealed against a Delhi High Court order refusing to grant her abortion right under the MTP Act as she was unmarried, and also because the pregnancy followed a consensual relationship. The woman had submitted that she was 23 weeks into her pregnancy and that her partner had refused to marry her. She had said that she is the eldest of five siblings and her parents are farmers, stressing that she does not have the means to bring up a child.

On July 21, the court had allowed the woman to abort the foetus provided a medical board concludes that it will not harm her. The bench had then said that provisions of the abortion law, amended in 2021, now include the word “partner” instead of “husband.”

5 Key Points of the Order

The bench, comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, AS Bopanna, and JB Pardiwala ruled that under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, the definition of rape must include marital rape.

The marital status of a woman cannot be a ground to deprive her of the right to abortion, the court said. It ruled that even unmarried women would be entitled to terminate an unwanted pregnancy within 24 weeks.

“Married women may also form part of class of survivors of sexual assault or rape. Ordinary meaning of the word rape is sexual intercourse with a person without their consent or against their will regardless of whether such forced intercourse occurs in the context of matrimony,” the court said.

The bench said that the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy on women’s body and mind “cannot be understated”. It stressed that the biological process of pregnancy transforms the body of women. The decision to carry pregnancy to full term or terminate it is “firmly rooted under the right to bodily autonomy and decisional autonomy of the pregnant women,” the court said.

The order said that if women with unwanted pregnancies are forced to carry their pregnancies to term, the State would be stripping them of the right to determine the immediate and long term path that their life will take.

The bench reiterated the need to reflect on social realities and evolve with society and focus on granting bodily autonomy to women for them to be able to sustain.

Meaning of judgment mean

Now any woman, married or unmarried, can seek out an abortion between 20-24 weeks of pregnancy. Unmarried women, much like married women, can seek abortion till the 24th week of pregnancy. In a strongly-worded order, the bench said, “If the State forces a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy to full term, it will amount to an affront to her dignity.”

(With inputs from agencies)

-INDIA NEWS STREAM