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56% abortions in India unsafe despite being legal; kill 10 women every day

56% abortions in India unsafe despite being legal; kill 10 women every day on Business Standard. A legislative amendment to increase gestation limit for abortion from 20 to 24 weeks has been hanging fire for three years.

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56% abortions in India unsafe despite being legal; kill 10 women every day

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  1. 56% abortions in India unsafe despite being legal; kill 10 women every day A legislative amendment to increase gestation limit for abortion from 20 to 24 weeks has been hanging fire for three years 56% abortions in India unsafe despite being legal; kill 10 women every day on Business Standard. A legislative amendment to increase gestation limit for abortion from 20 to 24 weeks has been hanging fire for three years.

  2. Health News : Niketa Mehta was in the 24th week of her pregnancy when a test revealed substantial abnormalities in the foetus’ heart that posed a risk to its survival. Mehta decided to abort, but found herself restrained by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, which prohibits abortion of a foetus older than 20 weeks, except when “immediately necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman”. Mehta’s obstetrician sought judicial authorisation (Nikhil Datar v. Union of India) from the Bombay High Court, saying Mehta did not want to give birth to a severely disabled infant and witness its suffering. The court refused, saying the issue was of future health risks to the unborn child, and not to the mother. This was in 2008. The ruling fueled a fierce debate around individual choice, ethics, technology and the law, and fueled demands from women’s and reproductive rights activists that the MTP Act be amended. Nine years since, in July this year, the Supreme Court allowed a woman to abort an over-20 week foetus which had serious cardiac impairments, observing that a woman’s right to reproductive choices is a part of her personal liberty. The courts have clearly come a long way, reflecting a broader change in society, but a legislative amendment to increase the gestation limit for abortion from 20 to 24 weeks has been hanging fire for three years. The 2014 draft bill proposes to allow abortion for up to 24 weeks’ gestation in rape cases, and to remove the limit altogether in case of specified abnormalities in the foetus. In order to make abortion services more accessible, it also proposes to allow AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy) doctors, auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) and nurses to conduct abortions. Click to Read → Abortion in India

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