Unmarried women, marital rape brought under ambit of abortion

OPINING that the decision to carry pregnancy to its full term or terminate it is rooted in the right of bodily and decisional autonomy of woman, the Supreme Court in a landmark ruling on Thursday held that prohibiting unmarried or single women with pregnancies up to 24 weeks from accessing abortion while allowing married women to do so goes against the right to equality.

A bench led by Justice D Y Chandrachud said the whole tenor of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 is to recognise the reproductive autonomy of every woman to choose medical intervention to terminate her pregnancy. If women with unwanted pregnancies are forced to carry their pregnancies to term, the state would be stripping them of the right to determine the immediate and long-term path their lives would take, it said.

The court observed that the artificial distinction between married and single women was not constitutionally sustainable. The benefits in law extend equally to both.