Abortion and hope

In almost every country in which public discourse is well-advanced, debates, often heavily politicised, swirl around abortion and its consequences. In the United States, presidential campaigns carefully strategise their candidates8217; replies to questions about the issue; in Ireland, five contentious referenda have kept that country8217;s laws among the strictest in the world. Even in authoritarian China, among the few known sources of discontent 8212; even among the rising middle class 8212; are forced abortions associated with that country8217;s draconian one-child policy. India is uniquely fortunate in that its political class has not yet discovered the possibilities inherent in this most personal of political issues.

Monday8217;s judgment from the Bombay High Court that Niketa Mehta did not possess a right under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act to abort a foetus that had entered its 25th week is thus both promising and perilous. Perilous, because the vexed questions of timelines and medical priorities have revealed its emotive potential. Welcome, because this is an opportunity for a relatively depoliticised and rational discourse to develop. Whatever bigger issues confound that discussion elsewhere the consequences of bans, the viability of foetuses are hardly relevant to a discussion of what medical constraints can be considered binding, and beyond which stage of the pregnancy they must be ignored. Authorities elsewhere have differed in their answers: 26, 24, and 20 weeks are all options within the European Union alone. These are questions best left to medical experts, and hopefully, they will be.

The health minister8217;s initial refusal to contemplate a change in the act was discouraging in that it did not recognise the impact of the judgment. However, he provided welcome nuance by stating that there are 8220;grey areas8221; in the law on abortion and euthanasia that require broader discussion. As long as that discussion is reasonable, realistic and dispassionate, India might be able to solve at least one problem before it explodes.