Legalization of Abortion
- Aruneesh Bhardwaj
- July 5, 2020
Content :
Despite the legalisation of abortion in India, morbidity and mortality continue to remain a serious problem for a majority of women undergoing abortions. A lack of reliable information, wide regional and rural-urban differences and a thin research base all make it difficult for policy-makers, administrators and women\'s health advocates to develop strategic interventions. Abortion, is a universal phenomenon and is defined as and has existed throughout recorded history, yet it continues to be a highly charged, controversial issue, raising extreme passions among lay people, as well as politicians, religious leaders, and health and rights advocates. Although abortion services in India were liberalized more than three decades ago, access to safe services remains limited for majority of women. This paper synthesizes recent evidence on abortion scenario in India, explores factors why women seek abortions. It highlights factors, notably unmet needs for contraception, lack of awareness of legality of abortion services, limited access to safe services, poor quality of services, leading women to seek services from untrained providers. Thus by making abortion services broadly legal, understanding size, type of unmet need, characteristics of women with unmet need, can surely help tackle this problem to some extent. But the abortion debate in India would be meaningless if it did not take into account the crucial problem of female foeticide. Liberation of women, therefore, needs to be equilibrated against the rights of the unborn child.
