{"id":6216,"date":"2020-02-07T10:34:06","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T05:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=6216"},"modified":"2020-02-07T10:34:06","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T05:04:06","slug":"significance-of-the-medical-termination-of-pregnancy-bill-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/significance-of-the-medical-termination-of-pregnancy-bill-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Significance of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy bill 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Relevance: Mains: G.S paper II: Governance: health<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>Context:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Union Cabinet\u2019s approval of the amended Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Bill 2020 was reported on January 29.<br \/>\n\u2022 This amendment was long due and has made some anticipated changes demanded by women\u2019s groups and courts, including the Supreme Court.<br \/>\n\u2022 The Act is not yet available in the public domain and the rules and procedures around it are yet to be formulated.<br \/>\n\u2022 The information available in the public domain, though, raises some issues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/medical.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6217\" src=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/medical.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"940\" height=\"909\" srcset=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/medical.png 940w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/medical-150x145.png 150w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/medical-300x290.png 300w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/medical-768x743.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>Salient features of proposed amendments:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Proposing requirement for opinion of one provider for termination of pregnancy, up to 20 weeks of gestation and introducing the requirement of opinion of two providers for termination of pregnancy of 20-24 weeks of gestation.<\/li>\n<li>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 \u2018vulnerable women including survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women (like differently-abled women, Minors) etc.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>Name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated shall not be revealed except to a person authorised in any law for the time being in force.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 is for expanding access of women to safe and legal abortion services on therapeutic, eugenic, humanitarianor social grounds. The proposed amendments include substitution of certain sub-sections, insertion of certain new clauses under some sections in the existing Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, with a view to increase upper gestation limit for termination of pregnancy under certain conditions and to strengthen access to comprehensive abortion care, under strict conditions, without compromising service and quality of safe abortion.<\/p>\n<p>It is a step towards safety and well-being of the women and many women will be benefitted by this. Recently several petitions were received by the Courts seeking permission for aborting pregnancies at a gestational age beyond the present permissible limit on grounds of foetal abnormalities or pregnancies due to sexual violence faced by women. The proposed increase in gestational age will ensure dignity, autonomy, confidentiality and justice for women who need to terminate pregnancy.<\/p>\n<p>In order to increase access of women to safe abortion services and taking into account the advances in medical technology, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare proposed amendments after extensive consultation with various stake holders and several ministries.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Why MTP Bill is significant?<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Abortion (unsafe) accounts for almost 10 per cent of maternal deaths in India.<br \/>\n\u2022 The amended Act doesn\u2019t have any new substantial provisions to avoid unsafe abortions.<br \/>\n\u2022 The right to safe abortion (at least till 12 weeks, when it is safer) would have made state responsible to provide safe abortion services.<br \/>\n\u2022 The proposed amendments will definitely reduce the burden on the judiciary, especially given the plethora of cases seeking permission for abortion beyond the prescribed duration of 20 weeks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>Types of court cases:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The court cases are broadly of two types.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>First type:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The first are pregnancies that extend beyond 20 weeks of gestation as a result of rape, incest or of minor women.<br \/>\n\u2022 The new Act rightly addresses these by extending prescribed period abortion to 24 weeks.<br \/>\n\u2022 However, such cases form a minuscule proportion of the total number.<br \/>\n\u2022 For such cases, even the 24-week cap can be done away with, provided the abortions can be safely done.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>Second type:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The second group of cases are of pregnancies that become unwanted after congenital foetal anomalies are found upon testing.<br \/>\n\u2022 These foetal anomalies would involve some which are compatible with life and some which are incompatible with life.<br \/>\n\u2022 With advancements in prenatal foetal screening\/diagnostic technologies, more such cases are knocking at the doors of courts.<br \/>\n\u2022 The most widely used non-invasive diagnostic test for this purpose is Ultrasonography (USG).<br \/>\n\u2022 Currently, USG is used to detect different congenital anomalies at different stages: First at 11-13.6 weeks and then at17-20 weeks.<br \/>\n\u2022 Anomalies detected at 17-20 weeks provide only a marginal interval to conduct an abortion under the current Act.<br \/>\n\u2022 The extension to 24 weeks seems to give cover to these cases for abortion services, reducing the burden on courts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>Opened up the ground for abortion:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The amendments have opened up the possibility for any congenital anomaly to be used as grounds for abortion.<br \/>\n\u2022 Anomalies which are incompatible with life provide grounds for access to abortion at any time during a pregnancy \u2014 not just 24 weeks of gestation \u2014 as long as the woman desires it and it doesn\u2019t endanger her health.<br \/>\n\u2022 But with advancements in diagnostic technologies more anomalies will be detected, including those which are compatible with life.<br \/>\n\u2022 What constitutes an anomaly changes depending on what is considered socially desirable .<br \/>\n\u2022 Technology-aided detection of \u201cundesirability\u201d could now find social support, as has been the case with female foetuses.<br \/>\n\u2022 This raises concerns that raising children with disability, especially in the absence of state support and poor social attitudes, could go down a similar path.<br \/>\n\u2022 Abortion beyond 12 weeks carries serious health risks and requires the expert opinion of two registered medical practitioners under the current Act.<br \/>\n\u2022 This requirement has been delayed till 20 weeks, though the physiology of pregnancy and risks associated with procedures for second trimester abortions haven\u2019t changed significantly.<br \/>\n\u2022 Without the strengthening of public services, easing second trimester abortions between 12-20 weeks opens the possibilities of more complications and endangers life of the woman.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With congenital anomalies as a ground for abortion, the eugenic mindset of having socially desirable children could push more women into risky late abortions.<br \/>\n\u2022 The approach of medical boards advising courts in cases of late abortions under this Act will be critical to balancing women\u2019s right to choose with risk to the woman and the motives for abortion.<br \/>\n\u2022 The rules framed under the Act must address this in no uncertain terms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relevance: Mains: G.S paper II: Governance: health Context: The Union Cabinet\u2019s approval of the amended Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,18],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-6216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-general-studies-ii","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6218,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6216\/revisions\/6218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}