A Feminist Perspective On Abortion Laws: A Comparative Analysis With Special Reference To India, The United States Of America, South Korea And Ireland
Bhoomika G Kuruvatti, BBA LLB, School of Law, Christ University, Bangalore
INTRODUCTION:
Abortion has always been a topic of much debate and discussion. There are people who support the choice of the mother or the pregnant woman to have the child or abort the foetus; there are people who do not think the same and believe that the foetus is not just a clump of cells, but a living being, with a life of its own, who is not an extension of the pregnant woman, thus recognising its individual rights and liberties.
One of the times that one can definitely think of in a society where a person’s freedom was threatened when a woman’s right to safe abortions was threatened. For many years and decades till 1971, India had declared the criminalisation of abortion and considered the terminology to be “intentionally causing miscarriage”. Voluntary abortion in cases where the life of the pregnant woman was not threatened was punishable with 3 years imprisonment, a fine or both. However, the staggering number of maternal deaths and abortion deaths due to women having to get abortions in illegal, unhygienic and unknown (non-certified medical practitioners) alerted the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It led them to enact the bill Medical Termination of Pregnancy, 1971 which specifies the legality of abortion and also answers essential questions such as who can terminate the pregnancy, where it can be terminated, whose consent and opinion is required for the termination etc. The Act was amended in 2002, and 2003 and was also proposed to make amendments in 2014.
