Cabinet nod to raise upper limit for abortions from 20 to 24 weeks

For unmarried women, the Bill seeks to relax the contraceptive-failure condition for “any woman or her partner” from the present provision for “only married woman or her husband”, allowing them to medically terminate the pregnancy.

The Bill also has a new provision under which “name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated shall not be revealed except to a person authorized in any law for the time being in force.”

Briefing the media, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said, “In a very progressive reform and giving reproductive rights to women, the limit of 20 weeks for medical termination of pregnancy has been increased to 24 weeks. This was important because in first five months there were cases that the girl concerned doesn’t realise and then they have to go to court. This was widely discussed with the stakeholders.”

Javadekar said the move will help reduce maternal mortality. Earlier, he said, after 24 weeks, “when there was no official permission, people used to resort to informal channels, unsafe MTPs and thus there would be problems. In fact, very few countries have given women such reproductive rights…such a progressive step has been taken. This will particularly help adolescent girls, rape victims and others who have faced such problems.”

An official statement said the Bill provides for “enhancing the upper gestation limit from 20 to 24 weeks for special

categories of women which will be defined in the amendments to the MTP Rules and would include ‘vulnerable women including survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women (like differently abled, minors) etc.”

“Upper gestation limit not to apply in cases of substantial foetal abnormalities diagnosed by Medical Board. The composition, functions and other details of Medical Board to be prescribed subsequently in Rules under the Act,” it said.

The present abortion law, which is about five decades old, allows abortion up to a maximum foetal gestation period of 20 weeks.

In a separate decision, the Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved allocation of 30 per cent of North Eastern Council’s allocation for new projects under the existing “Schemes of North Eastern Council” for focused development of deprived areas; deprived/neglected sections of society and emerging priority sectors in the North eastern States.

The Cabinet also approved official amendments to the National Commission for Homoeopathy Bill, 2019, and the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, 2019.