Abortion: Is it Right or Wrong?

Abortion: Is it Right or Wrong?

Abortion has stirred up raging political and legal controversies worldwide. In many countries religious and political groups oppose abortion equating it to murder, while women’s rights activists insist that it forms part of a woman’s fundamental rights to have control over her body.

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act in India
In India, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy [MTP] Act was enacted in the year 1971 making abortion legal under certain conditions. Legally, this act meant that a woman who decides to terminate her pregnancy would not be stopped from doing so, nor would she be forced to risk her life doing so. But what happened in reality gives us an absolute different picture. It became evident that the concern for women’s reproductive health was not a major factor behind the passing of the Act. Rather, it was passed largely under the belief that legalized abortion would help curb the population growth rate. The result is that almost after 30 years since the enactment of the MTP Act, only a small number of abortions have been carried out safely in accordance with the Act’s provisions. According to World Health Organization (WHO) out of the estimated 5.3 million induced abortions carried out in India in 1989, about 4.7 million were unsafe. This makes India the site of unsafe abortions more than any other country in the world.

Is MTP Act a mission aborted?
Even though the abortion has been legalized in India, the Act gives an upper hand to the doctors in taking decisions regarding the procedures than to the women who are actually undergoing it. Moreover, unlike the government doctors, the different criteria for registration have created hurdles for qualified doctors of private sector to conduct legal abortion. Simplifying the registration requirements for private sector that controls 87 per cent of the abortion market would improve the abortion procedures since only 24 per cent of abortions in private sector are certified and legal. Dilatation and Curettage (D&C) seems to be the preferred method for nearly 89 per cent of abortion; even among the user of vacuum aspiration the practice of check curettage is common. Urgent action is needed for a complete shift towards vacuum aspiration, which is not only less painful but could also help save abortion related expenses in health sector.

To make MTP Act a success:

The need of the hour is to make the idea of a safe abortion into reality. For this there is a need to initiate campaign to:

Raise public awareness of women’s right under this Act. Women must be educated about the options available – what are the safe medical procedures and where are they available? Media such as TV, Radio, pamphlets and billboards can be used to spread the awareness among both men and women.

Initiate an efficient distribution of resources between both private and government hospitals. Ensure adequate equipment, supplies and staffs for carrying out the procedure. Minimize the legal paperwork that precedes the actual abortion procedure.
Doctors must be given intensive training regarding the latest and safest methods for conducting abortions.

A legal amendment to change the clause in the MTP Act that only registered practitioners can perform abortions. Rural health workers could be given extensive training to conduct abortion under supervision. This will prevent women in rural areas from being at the mercy of quacks and midwives.
Safe abortion should be accessible, available and affordable to every woman in India irrespective of the place of living and socio-economic condition.