Why Indian women race against time to access abortion despite progressive court judgements

In December, a 24-year-old receptionist from Mumbai’s western suburbs discovered to her shock that she was nearly four months pregnant.

In the past, she had experienced problems with her menstrual cycle and a doctor had then prescribed medicines. “I thought it was the same problem.”

Stomach pain and exhaustion prompted her to consult a doctor. A sonography test showed that she was over 20 weeks into the pregnancy.

But when she sought an abortion, a local gynaecologist said the pregnancy could not be terminated since it had crossed the 20-week mark. “She asked me to visit a government hospital,” said the woman.

Abortions, upon the advice of a medical practitioner, are legal under India’s Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, until the 20-week mark. An amendment to the law in March 2021 extended the time frame for legal abortions to the 24-week mark of a pregnancy, but only for certain cases. Unmarried women pregnant as a result of consensual sex, like in the case of the 24-year-old woman, were excluded from this.

But in September, the Supreme Court ruled that the law could not discriminate between married and unmarried women and held that the 24-week cut-off is applicable to both.

Though the court’s progressive reading expanded the scope of the law and the reproductive rights of...

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