A 15-year-old rape survivor. A pregnancy past 30 weeks. A mother approaching the Supreme Court in desperation. When the court permitted the termination, the case became, almost instantly, a referendum on abortion law. Activists celebrated the judiciary. Parliament, by implication, stood accused of silence, of abandoning women to the courts. I understand that reaction. I do not agree with it.

In the ongoing pro-life vs pro-choice debate, I believe the government of India has, on balance, got this right. The legislation as it stands is not the obstacle. The problem lies elsewhere, in implementation, in access, and in our collective unwillingness to engage honestly with what late-stage termination actually involves, medically and ethically. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act of 1971 was enacted at a time when safe, legal abortion was not available to women in much of the democratic world and abortion remained criminalised in most developed countries. The United States was still two years away from Roe v. Wade. The United Kingdom had only just begun implementing its own liberalisation. India moved early, driven by a stark reality: Criminalising abortion was killing women.

An estimated 9,30,000 abortions occur annually among adolescents in India, with around 78 per cent being unsafe. Approximately 8 per cent –13 per cent of maternal deaths........

© Indian Express