India’s high court docket on Thursday upheld the best of a lady to an abortion as much as 24 weeks into being pregnant no matter marital standing, a choice broadly hailed by ladies’s rights activists.
The best to abortion has proved contentious globally after the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned in June its landmark 1973 choice in Roe v. Wade that had legalized the process throughout the USA.
“Even an single girl can endure abortion as much as 24 weeks on par with married ladies,” mentioned Justice D.Y. Chandrachud of India’s Supreme Court docket, holding {that a} girl’s marital standing couldn’t resolve her proper to abort.
A legislation relationship from 1971, the Medical Termination of Being pregnant (MTP) Act, had restricted the process to married ladies, divorcees, widows, minors, “disabled and mentally unwell ladies” and survivors of sexual assault or rape.
“The choice to have or to not have an abortion is borne out of sophisticated life circumstances, which solely the girl can select on her personal phrases with out exterior interference or affect,” the court docket ruling mentioned.
It added that each girl ought to have the “reproductive autonomy” to hunt abortion, with out consulting a 3rd get together.
Thursday’s choice got here in response to a petition by a lady who mentioned her being pregnant resulted from a consensual relationship however she had sought abortion when the connection failed.
The ruling is a milestone for the rights of Indian ladies, activists mentioned.
“It’s a first step, it’s a progressive step,” mentioned Yogita Bhayana, founding father of PARI (Folks Towards Rapes in India).
The court docket added that sexual assault by husbands will be categorised as marital rape beneath the MTP legislation. Indian legislation doesn’t contemplate marital rape an offence, although efforts are being made to vary this.
“In an period that features Dobbs vs Jackson, and makes distinctions between the marital standing of girls who’re raped, this wonderful judgment on abortion beneath the MTP Act hits it out of the park,” Karuna Nundy, an advocate specializing in gender legislation and different areas, mentioned on Twitter.
She was referring to the case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court docket judgment in June.
