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ABSTRACT
Abortion laws in India, like other laws, are premised on the 1861 British Penal Code. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act was passed in 1971 to circumvent the criminality clause around abortion. Yet the law continues to render invisible women's right to choose. Legal procedures have often hindered in permitting abortion, resulting in the death of a mother or the foetus. Despite the latest techno-medical advances, the laws have remained stagnant or rather restrictive, complicated further by selective female foetus abortions. Legal resistance to abortion-seeking after 20 weeks gestation adversely affects women, depriving them of autonomy of choice. In this paper, raising important gender, health and ethical issues are illustrated through a recent legal case in India. Feminist campaigns against the legal mindset in India are emerging.
Acknowledgements
The author appreciates and thanks Bubbal and Garima Yadav for their assistance in preparing this paper, and thanks Maya Unnithan and the participants at the conference in Sussex for their comments, and A. M. Shah for reading an earlier version of the paper. The anonymous reviewers’ constructive contribution has helped her to sharpen the paper, and she is thankful to them.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.