Supreme Court's new move to include unmarried women under abortion law

The Supreme Court will consider changing the law to allow unmarried women to have abortions. According to the Supreme Court, depriving an unmarried woman of the right to a safe abortion is her personal liberty. In such a situation, the court will now interpret the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act and related rules whether unmarried women can be allowed to have abortions at 24 weeks or not. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and JB Pardiwala on Friday asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, to assist the court in the process.

During the hearing, Justice Chandrachud observed that when exceptions have been provided under the law, why can't unmarried women be included for termination of pregnancy at 24 weeks. However, we must give preference to the advice of the doctor for this. He further said that the parliamentary intent seems clear as it has replaced "husband" with "partner". This shows that he has also put unmarried women in the category of those who allow termination of pregnancy at 24 weeks.