On 17th March, the Lok Sabha of the Indian Parliament passed the MTP Amendment Bill 2020 (to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act 1971). A detailed article was published yesterday in the Journal of Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, highlighting the major developments in the MTP Act 1971. In this commentary, the authors build on earlier analyses in the media and adopt an intersectional lens to highlight critical gaps in the proposed amendments.
Understanding both sides, the lawmakers as well as the law-abiding citizens. The authors discuss and suggest what is needed as a prime stakeholder in exercising their right and duty.
The struggle continues –
- For a law that upholds the rights to equality, autonomy, bodily integrity, and privacy;
- For one that can transform the ecosystem within which people can exercise their full range of reproductive rights, and particularly their decisional autonomy to seek abortions.
Critical Points
In this commentary, the authors build on earlier analyses in the media and adopt an intersectional lens to highlight critical gaps in the proposed amendments.
1) Even though the evidence suggests that medical abortion is safe and non-invasive, the amendments still do not recognize abortion at will for any stage of the pregnancy.
2) Doctors’ approval is a must for abortions and also limits the circumstances under which approvals can be given. No shift in power from the doctor to the person seeking an abortion.
The amendment gives the relaxation of the requirement; earlier two doctors’ approvals were required but now only one doctor is needed to approve abortions for pregnancies up to 20 weeks. The study suggests widening the provider base and allows mid-level provision – by AYUSH practitioners, staff nurses, medical officers, and auxiliary nurse/midwives – of abortions up to 12 weeks, based on guidance by the World Health Organization.
2) In addition, the 2020 Bill extends contraceptive failure as a ground for abortion to any “woman or her partner” compared to the previous where it was as against only married women. The provision excludes large numbers of single women, especially from marginalized groups, like sex workers.
3) Only in case of fetal anomalies diagnoses, the gestational limit is extended beyond 24 weeks. And pregnancies that are a result of sexual violence as legitimate claimants to abortions beyond 20 weeks, to 24 weeks.
4) In the 2020 bill, the confidentiality clause allows disclosure of the pregnant person’s details to persons “authorized by law”, which violates the right to privacy.
The reproductive choice should be read within the personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. The MTP Amendment Bill 2020 also articulates the need to ensure “dignity, autonomy, confidentiality, and justice for women who need to terminate the pregnancy”.
Justice Chandrachud
The articles further suggest that abortion access should be within a framework of autonomy and self-determination, rather than focusing on specific grounds. The long journey of legislating access to safe abortion that started in 1971 can truly be said to conclude only when India decriminalizes abortion.
Image Credits: Pexels
