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KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • The Parliament passed a bill called The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 2020 after much consideration.
  • The key highlight of this law is its new abortion laws which changed the limitation period to terminate pregnancy which was earlier 20 weeks to now 24 weeks.
  • But this advantage of abortion up to 24 weeks is only in special cases and not for all.
  • The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2020 aims to recognize the safe, affordable and accessible abortion for those women who need to terminate pregnancy under special and specified circumstances mentioned in this act.
  • The new act briefly amends section 3 of the older act i.e. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.

INTRODUCTION

  • The bill regarding amendment to the old MTP Act, 1971 was 1st passed in March 2020 in Lok Sabha and now Rajya Sabha recently approved the new bill which briefly talks about the new laws relating to abortion.
  • Health Minister Harsh Vardhan also said that this bill enlarges the ambit to safe and legal abortion for women and also does not compromises on the safety, autonomy, dignity, Justice and quality of care.
  • The amendments were made with regards to the growing number of petitions in Supreme court and various high courts relating to the termination of pregnancy and the act.

BACKGROUND

  • The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2020 amends section 3 and 6 of the medical termination of pregnancy act , 1971 and also inserts a new section i.e. section 5A.
  • According to health minister of India this act is passed for the preservation and protection of dignity of woman and no such act shall be passed which harms women.
  • Before the bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha, the health minister said that this bill was approved in the Lok Sabha after much discussion and consultation by the ministers, which was also approved by the ethics committee.
  • This bill was opposed by the many opposition leaders like Congress, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi party among others for having discrepancies and pointed out loopholes in the act.

FURTHER DETAILS

  • Section 5A which has been inserted in this new law ensures protection of privacy of women who opts for termination of pregnancy by non disclosure of her name and other details regarding abortion by any person except to a person authorized by law.
  • This section punishes whoever contravenes the privacy of such women by imprisonment up to 1 year or with fine or both.

CHANGES IN ABORTION LAWS

• Section 3 of the new amended act talks at length about the changes made in the rules relating to abortion.
• The limitation to abort a foetus extends from 20 weeks to 24 weeks but for only for those woman who fall under the special category of woman as prescribed by the new act.
• It requires the opinion of only a registered medical practitioner.
• When the termination of pregnancy exceeds up to 24 weeks opinion of 2 medical practitioners shall be required and such opinion should be made in good faith.
• It explains that woman can opt for termination of pregnancy even if it exceeds up to 24 weeks in cases

  • Where pregnancy can cause risk of life or any kind of mental or physical injury of grave nature.
  • Here grave injury to mental health also includes cases resulting in failure of some method or device for example : use of contraceptive for birth control or any such medical procedure for prevention of child birth.
  • The risk that if the child is born it would face mental or physical abnormalities.
  • Where pregnancy is caused due to rape or incest.

• Length of pregnancy shall not apply to the termination of such pregnancies where such termination involves diagnosis of any substantial foetal abnormalities detected by the Medical board.
• Also it makes provision for constitution of a medical Board in every state and union territory which shall include

  • A gynaecologist
  • A Paediatrician
  • Radiologist / Sonologist

LOOPHOLES POINTED BY OPPOSITION

Many politicians came forward to talk about the loopholes and which were pointed out.

1. Shiv Sena – Priyanka Chaturvedi
She felt that this was extremely demeaning and an invasion not only to privacy of woman but also an invasion of her choice and at a time when a woman takes decision it shall also create more bureaucratic hurdles.
Also it is wrong to say that this bill is ‘right based approach’ rather it is a ‘need based approach’.

2. CPI – Binoy Viswam
He felt that the right to make decision of termination of pregnancy should be with the woman itself and not with the medical board.

3. Congress – Amee Yagnik
She observed that no where in the new amended law it is mentioned about the time period regarding the decision to be taken by the board in such cases.

4. NCP – Fauzia Khan
She pointed out at the impracticality of the decision that in rural areas opinion of 2 specialist doctors is needed.

5. CPI – M – Jharna Das Baidya
According to him this new MTP Act, 2020 is against Unmarried women.

CONCLUSION

It can be seen and pointed out that though the government made a good initiative by increasing the limitation period on abortion up to 24 weeks it was pointed out by many that this still hinders a woman’s right to take the decision on her own as it still depends upon the approval of the medical board.

Also it is a provision name for woman falling under such special category and does not include all woman in general. As these loopholes were pointed by the politicians in the Parliament it is true that practically it is not possible in rural areas to find any doctor let alone a specialist doctor.

Even there aren’t proper hospitals with facilities and doctors and people have to travel to cities or towns to avail medical facilities. And this can even result to lapse of time for woman who want to terminate unwanted pregnancy.


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