January 22, 2025

The issue of an unnamed woman approaching the Supreme Court for permission to abort her more than 24 week old foetus should occupy the attention of government and society urgently. This is not the first time a distressed woman has approached the judiciary for relief in this matter. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act is more than 45 years old. Since then, advances in medical science have meant that what was unsafe then is no longer considered life threatening now. Hence, the threshold established then needs to be revisited by lawmakers.

In the instant case, the woman, from a poor background, was ditched by her alleged fiancé and is claiming rape. To complicate matters further, the foetus has been diagnosed as having a rare disease. It would be a burden on the woman to expect her to give birth to and raise a diseased child all on her own.

It is not a secret that the proper condition of a foetus is sometimes is discernible only after 20 weeks have passed. As the MTP Act prescribes that aborting a foetus after 20 weeks is illegal, a woman has to give birth to a diseased child whom she might not have wanted to keep if the law was relaxed.

Lawmakers and society have to consider several things, the main being advances in medical science, ethical compulsions and extraneous circumstances, before arriving at a reasonably safe threshold. This threshold should not be rigid but flexibility should be allowed for the doctor to decide on a case to case basis. Termination of unwanted pregnancy is a right which a woman should have without any restriction if it is not life threatening and if medical science permits it. Law should regulate it, not put a restriction on it.