Same-sex marriage hearing in Supreme Court: What is the US abortion ruling that the Centre mentioned?

What does the ruling in Dobbs v Jackson say?

In 2022, in Dobbs v Jackson, the SCOTUS overturned the 50-year precedent on abortion. The ruling, a 6:3 majority, was anticipated since Republican Party nominated Supreme Court justices had majority in Court. A month before the verdict was delivered, the political newspaper Politico published a leaked draft opinion of the majority judges that largely matched the final decision.

In the same term, the Supreme Court also in York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen held that state-imposed restrictions on gun ownership were unconstitutional.

The ruling in Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) and held that abortion neither finds express mention in the US Constitution, nor is deeply rooted in the nation’s history and tradition, and therefore cannot be a protected constitutional right. The ruling has enabled several states governed by Republicans to pass legislations severely restricting access to abortion. These could have been blocked by a federal judge in the pre-Dobbs era.

‘Roe’ in 1973 had struck down laws that made abortion illegal in several states, cutting through religious and moral positions on abortion and ruled that abortion would be allowed up to the point of foetal viability, that is, the time after which a foetus can survive outside the womb.

What is the position in India?

Two years before the US Supreme Court decided Roe v Wade, India passed the Medical Termination Pregnancy Act, 1971. The law, to “liberalise access to abortion”, created a series of exceptions to penal laws enacted in colonial times that made abortion illegal. The legislation was in the backdrop of India’s growing population and was not followed by any debates on the morality of abortion or the choice debate.

The law with several amendments since 1971 now allows for termination of pregnancy up to 24 weeks with some exceptions.

Courts have also liberally interpreted the abortion law, emphasising on its intent to make abortion accessible. In the same week that the Dobbs verdict was delivered in the US, a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud delivered a verdict expanding the timelines on abortion for unmarried women.

The Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to distinguish between married and unmarried women for allowing termination of pregnancy on certain exceptional grounds when the foetus is between 20-24 weeks.