A Critical Evaluation Of India's Abortion Laws And The Medical Termination Of Pregnancy Act, 1971 From A Women's Rights Perspective
- IJLLR Journal
- May 20
- 2 min read
Yashaswi, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
Purnima Tyagi, Assistant Professor, Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
ABSTRACT
The abortion laws in India are a manifestation of a legal dichotomy where women are allowed to practice their reproductive agency, but within strictly defined boundaries. The researcher analyse the abortion laws of India, and specifically the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (MTP Act), from a legal standing of women's rights. The researcher conduct a doctrinal legal study to develop an understanding of the legal framework for abortion in India within the statutory laws, the Constitution, and the framework of judicial precedent and the data available on abortion in India. The Research find that the MTP Act, as revised in 2021, has, in a few significant ways, relaxed the legal framework of abortion. This is especially evident in the changes that removed many of the explicit marital requirements to define women in a particular sense. Researcher also find that the Supreme Court has partially introduced the right to abortion through the right to privacy and dignity, a woman's right to equality, bodily integrity, and informed consent. On the other hand, Researcher argue that the abortion laws of India still operate within a conditional dimension, and as a 'medically mediated' social contract from a rights perspective. Researcher find that the real social constraints in India that restrict women's ability to exercise legal reproductive agency are: physician control, abortion laws and social policies, dependence of Medical Boards, and late stage abortion laws that are only implemented through judicial precedent. In order to liberalize the abortion laws, India has to relax the restrictive social framework and combine within it women/family rights, and through reproductive justice relax social control and provide legal, affordable, and accessible abortion on request.
Keywords: Abortion law in India; Reproductive autonomy; Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971; Women's rights; Reproductive justice.
