Are Women Free To Make Decisions About Their Body? No

This week Delhi high court, disagreeing with the medical board, has allowed a minor rape survivor to terminate her pregnancy of 27 weeks. As such cases continue to be decided one at a time by Indian courts, UK is going a different way. Its House of Commons voted in a mid-June landslide to decriminalise women terminating pregnancies after the statutorily prescribed limit of 24 weeks. The legislation is drafted interestingly. It does not make amendments to the criminal law, but prohibits women from being investigated, arrested, prosecuted or imprisoned for seeking termination of pregnancy.

Consider that, according to UNFPA, close to 8 women die each day in India due to causes related to unsafe abortions. It remains the third leading cause of maternal mortality – nearly 2 in every 3 abortions are unsafe. This is the backdrop for getting serious about the decriminalisation of abortion.