India’s Supreme Court has ruled that all women, irrespective of their marital status, are entitled to safe and legal abortion until the 24th week of pregnancy.
A woman must have the autonomy to exercise her rights, India's top court observed, pointing out that any “artificial distinction between married and unmarried women cannot be sustained."
The ruling will be welcomed by India's 73 million unmarried women.
Over the past two decades, more than 50 countries have changed their laws on the voluntary termination of pregnancy. Some governments have granted greater access while others have restricted a woman's right to choose.
In a case in the US in June, the Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision in Roe v Wade that had legalised abortion.
India's Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act of 1971, had limited the procedure to married women, divorcees, widows, minors, "disabled and mentally ill women" and survivors of sexual assault or rape.
The latest ground-breaking judgment by the bench of Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice A S Bopanna and Justice J B Pardiwala also recognises marital rape as a factor conferring automatic access to abortion.
The court ruled that the enforced pregnancy of a married woman can be considered as marital rape.
India’s laws do not consider marital rape an offence, though efforts are being made to change this.
Broad welcome for progressive decision
Medical practitioners and women's rights activists hailed the judgment that should help promote safe abortion practices.
“We hope the judgment will be a step towards making our abortion regime more liberal and pro-women,” said Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the Population Foundation of India.
“Safe abortion practices have been a concern in our country and with this judgment, we can expect a reduction in morbidity and mortality associated with unsafe abortion practices,” said Chitra Ramamurthy, a gynaecologist.
The decision came in response to a petition by a 25-year-old woman who said her pregnancy resulted from a consensual relationship but she had sought abortion when the relationship collapsed.
Judgment praised
In her plea before the court, the woman said she wanted an abortion because her partner had refused to marry her at the last minute and that having a child out of wedlock would open her to "social stigma and harassment".
In addition to granting all women the same rights and freedoms, the court recognised that single women can have relationships that involve sex.
The decision follows protests against the high incidence of sexual assault against women and girls across India in recent years.
Laws have had minimal impact in slowing the tide of sexual violence in India, ranked as the most dangerous country in the world for women in a 2018 Thomson Reuters Foundation survey.
