The Supreme Court on Thursday, passed a landmark judgment on a woman’s right to abortion. It held that a woman’s marital status cannot be a ground to deny her the right of abortion and that all women are entitled to safe and legal abortion under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.
As per the National Family Health Survey -5 released this year, nearly 3 % of pregnancies resulted in abortion. The main reasons were an unplanned pregnancy, health factors, complications in pregnancy and the non-willingness of the husband to continue with the pregnancy. A small percentage stated that female foetus was also a cause. Some others cited economic reasons for their reason to abort.
The United Nations Population Fund’s State of the World Population Report 2022 stated that unsafe abortions are one of the reasons for maternal mortality in India and that around 8 women die due to unsafe abortions.
