Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

17.41 hrs                       (Shri Kodikunnil Suresh in the Chair)           When this original Bill was brought in 1971, India was amongst one of the first few countries in the whole world to legalise abortion in order to provide legal and safe abortion services to women who required to terminate a pregnancy due to certain threptic, eugenics or humanitarian grounds.  However, with the passage of time and advancements of medical technology for safe abortion, there is a scope for increasing upper gestational limit for terminating pregnancies, especially for vulnerable women, like survivors of rape, incest, minor girls or differently abled women and for pregnancies with substantial foetal abnormalities detected late in the pregnancy.

          The court and the Government also responded positively. Finally, the time has come to amend the 49-year old law on medical termination of pregnancy. I appreciate the positive aspects of the Bill. It will go a long way in enabling women to exercise their right to abortion and avoid cumbersome process of legal battle. 

It is appreciable that this Bill has extended the pregnancy termination time period from 20 weeks in the principal Act to 24 weeks. It has also enhanced the gestation limit for 'special categories' of women which includes survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women like differently- abled women and minors. It also protects the privacy of women by stating that the "name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated shall not be revealed", except to a person authorised in any law that is currently in force. The extension of time period would allow termination of pregnancy in cases where some anomaly in the foetus is reported after 20 weeks. Significantly, the Bill also applies to unmarried women and therefore, relaxes one of the regressive clauses of the 1971 Act, i.e., single woman could not cite contraceptive failure as a reason for seeking an abortion.

          What I want to say here is, aborting a 24-week foetus is a huge responsibility and our healthcare systems in rural India are not really equipped to handle that.  So, my request to the hon. Minister is that we really have to address it in order to keep the mother safe post this 24-week termination of pregnancy.

          The other amendment which has been proposed is about enhancing the upper gestation limit from 20 to 24 weeks for survivors of rape victims, incest minors and other vulnerable women including differently abled women.  This was very beautifully brought out by my colleague, Sushri Jyothimoni.

          Let us look at the statistics around this issue. Why is it of utmost importance? According to the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai; Population Council, Delhi; and the Guttmacher Institute, New York, we add up the incidents of unwanted pregnancies in India. With respect to incest rape survivors, minors and differently-able women, what do we find? Over 19,000 children were raped in India last year. Six per cent of them became pregnant, that is, 1,140 children have already lost their childhood. Do we really want to punish them further more?  This Bill seeks to lift a large part of the burden that was on them. Of these 19,000 young girls and children, 80 per cent were raped by somebody that they knew. When we look at victims of incest, NCRB statistics say that of the 34,000 rapes that have been reported last year in our nation, five to six per cent are incest-based. Now, it is important to understand that this will always be under-reported because if I am raped by my cousin, brother or father, the social stigma is so horrific that I am obviously not going to go to a police station and record that this has happened to me.