MEDICAL TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY ACT – GOVERNANCE
News:
Examine if safe termination of 29-week pregnancy possible: SC to AIIMS
What's in the news?
● The
Supreme Court Thursday asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS) to examine if it will be possible to safely terminate the 29-week
pregnancy of a 20-year-old woman who had approached the court seeking
permission for the same.
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971:
● The
Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 provides the legal framework
for making CAC services available in India.
● Termination of pregnancy
is permitted for a broad range of conditions up to 20 weeks of gestation as
detailed below:
a. When
continuation of pregnancy is a risk to
the life of a pregnant woman or could cause grave injury to her physical or
mental health.
b. When
there is substantial risk that the child,
if born, would be seriously handicapped due to physical or mental
abnormalities.
c. When
pregnancy is caused due to rape
(presumed to cause grave injury to the mental health of the woman).
d. When
pregnancy is caused due to failure of
contraceptives used by a married woman or her husband (presumed to
constitute grave injury to mental health of the woman).
Medical Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Act, 2021:
The
Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act allows termination of pregnancy by a
medical practitioner in two stages.
● After
a crucial amendment in 2021, for pregnancies up to 20 weeks, termination is allowed under the opinion of one registered medical practitioner.
● For
pregnancies between 20-24 weeks, the
Rules attached to the law prescribe certain criteria in terms of who can avail
termination. It also requires the opinion of two registered medical practitioners in this case.
● For pregnancies within 20
weeks, termination can be allowed if:
a. the
continuance of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant
woman or of grave injury to her physical or mental health; or
b. there
is a substantial risk that if the child was born, it would suffer from any
serious physical or mental abnormality.
● The
explanation to the provision states that termination within 20 weeks is allowed
“where any pregnancy occurs as a result of failure of any device or method used
by any woman or her partner for the
purpose of limiting the number of children or preventing pregnancy, the anguish
caused by such pregnancy may be presumed to constitute a grave injury to the
mental health of the pregnant woman”.
● The
phrase “any woman or her partner” was also introduced in 2021 in place of the
earlier “married woman or her husband”. By eliminating
the word “married woman or her husband” from the scheme of the MTP Act, the
legislature intended to clarify the scope of Section 3 and bring pregnancies which occur outside the institution of marriage
within the protective umbrella of the law.
● For
both stages - within 20 weeks and between 20-24 weeks - termination is allowed
“where any pregnancy is alleged by the pregnant woman to have been caused by
rape, the anguish caused by the pregnancy shall be presumed to constitute a
grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman”.
● For pregnancies between
20-24 weeks, Section 3B of the Rules under the MTP Act lists seven categories
of women:
a. Survivors
of sexual assault or rape or incest.
b. Minors
c. Change
of marital status during the ongoing pregnancy (widowhood and divorce).
d. Women
with physical disabilities (major disability as per criteria laid down under
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016).
e. Mentally
ill women including mental retardation.
f.
The foetal malformation
that has substantial risk of being incompatible with life or if the child is
born it may suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities to be seriously
handicapped.
g. Women
with pregnancy in humanitarian settings or disaster or emergency situations as
may be declared by the Government.