Supreme Court favours to include unmarried women under abortion law

New Delhi: Insisting on a “forward-looking” approach, the Supreme Court has opined that any discrimination between married and unmarried women in respect of medical termination of pregnancy law in India that does not allow a single woman to go for abortion after 20 weeks, violates her personal autonomy. A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and JB Pardiwala said it will interpret the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act and the related rules to see if unmarried women could be allowed to abort upto 24-week pregnancy on medical advice. “There has to be a forward-looking interpretation of the (MTP Act and Rules) law in view of the advancement made in the medical field,” said the apex court. The upper limit for the termination of pregnancy is 24 weeks for married women, special categories – including survivors of rape and other vulnerable women such as the differently-abled and minors; the corresponding window for unmarried women in consensual relationships is 20 weeks. The bench asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, to assist the court in the exercise. It has now posted the case for hearing on August 10. “When there are exceptions provided under the law, then why unmarried women can’t be included to terminate 24-weeks pregnancy if the medical advice permits so? The parliamentary intent appears to be clear as it has replaced ‘husband’ with ‘partner’. It shows that they have considered unmarried women also in the bracket of those allowed to terminate 24-weeks pregnancy,” Justice Chandrachud said. The apex court questioned if a married woman is allowed to terminate upto 24 weeks of pregnancy under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy [MTP] Act, 1971, and the Rules framed under it, why denying the same to unmarried women, even though the risk is same for both. The bench said it can strike down the restrictive clause “for being manifestly arbitrary”, which in turn would allow extending the benefit of terminating pregnancy above 20 weeks to unmarried women also. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.