What if abortion is not a public health claim but a privacy claim?
THE Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021 received Presidential Assent on 25th March 2021. The Act amends the original enactment of 1971 to increase the number of weeks within which a woman can terminate her pregnancy, and provides for certain circumstances in which a pregnancy can be terminated at any stage.
- envelops are kept in the clinic after abortion is done
- Similarly, medical abortion pills are classified as Schedule H drugs for which a pharmacist must maintain a record of sales under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. This violates the confidentiality promised by MTP Act 2021, abortion advocates say.
In 2017, a nine-judge Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, in the landmark Puttaswamy judgment on the right to privacy, held that the right to have an abortion is a facet of the right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21. This would entail the right to control one’s health and body, including sexual and reproductive freedom.
Earlier, in 2009, in the Suchita Srivastava judgment referred to earlier, the Supreme Court had held that a woman’s right to make reproductive choices is a dimension of personal liberty under Article 21, and reproductive choices can be exercised to procreate as well as to abstain from procreating.
India has a privacy Bill? No.
How does MTP Act, acknowledge that women have a right to abortion privacy?
“5A. (1) No registered medical practitioner shall reveal the name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated under this Act except to a person authorised by any law for the time being in force.
(2) Whoever contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1) shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.”.
Hidden Pockets Collective 