Right to abortion & safe abortion will reduce maternal mortality

Abstract

Recent report of the United Nations population fund’s state of the world population says that around 08 women die every day in India because of unsafe abortion. There are many reasons behind the deaths such as taking abortion pills without consulting doctor, abortion carried out by untrained personals, abortion in hospitals without facilities settings etc. Married women have the right to abortion but what about the unmarried pregnant women; this case is one of the major cause of unsafe abortion especially in our country India. Right to abortion simply means one can go for safe abortion i.e. the abortion will be carried out by a trained doctor in a hospital approved for pregnancy termination having facilities settings. Time to time amendments in Medical termination of Pregnancy act took place but no right provided to unmarried. Supreme Court in its judgment on 29th September 2022 gave right to abortion to unmarried pregnant women too up to 20 weeks from the date of gestation. This judgement came in a case that filed on July 2022 by 25 years old pregnant women. The judgement is a revolution and save many lives of women because it will stop or reduce the number of unsafe abortions. The article discussed about the impact of this decision on women in near future, unsafe abortion, medical abortion using medications, actions and adverse effects of medications used for abortion, medical termination of pregnancy act 1971, amendment in act and effect of Supreme Court’s judgement on women’s health and mortality.