News Brief
Parliament Passes Bill To Amend Medical Termination Of Pregnancy Act To Allow Abortion Up To 24 Weeks In Special Cases
Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan (representative image) (Facebook/@drharshvardhanofficial)
The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (16 March) approved the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that expands access of women to safe and legal abortion services on therapeutic, eugenic, humanitarian or social grounds.
The bill to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 has been passed by the Lok Sabha on 17 March last year.
Currently, abortion requires the opinion of one doctor if it is done within 12 weeks of conception, and two doctors if it is done between 12 and 20 weeks, reports The Hindu.
However, the new Bill allows abortion to be done on the advice of one doctor up to 20 weeks, and two doctors in the case of certain special categories of women between 20 and 24 weeks.
The special categories of women will be defined in the amendments to the MTP Rules and would include survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women (like differently-abled women, minors) etc, the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday (17 March).
For a pregnancy to be terminated after 24 weeks in case of substantial foetal abnormalities, the opinion of the State-level medical board is essential.
Some other salient features of the bill are:
Name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated shall not be revealed except to a person authorised in any law for the time being in force.
The ground of failure of contraceptive has been extended to women and her partner.
According to the Health Ministry, the amendments include substitution of certain sub-sections, insertion of certain new clauses under some sections in the existing Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, with a view to increase upper gestation limit for termination of pregnancy under certain conditions and to strengthen access to comprehensive abortion care, under strict conditions, without compromising service and quality of safe abortion.
The ministry further said that the bill is a step towards safety and well-being of the women.
The amendments will increase the ambit and access of women to safe abortion services and will ensure dignity, autonomy, confidentiality and justice for women who need to terminate pregnancy, it said.
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