Why our political parties are silent on a landmark verdict for women's right to safe abortion?

New Delhi: Normally, all political parties are quick to react to pronouncements from courts that enhance women's rights. But there are exceptions too.

Last week, Supreme Court removed the distinction between married and unmarried women in India’s abortion laws.

Also, for the first time, the Court has accorded formal recognition to marital rape, though in the limited context of termination of pregnancy.

However, what is seen as a landmark verdict for the safe course in abortion for all women did not see any political party react to the Court’s ruling, which is intended to set right an anomaly between the letter of the law and its practice.

All political parties are wary of treading on areas that may offend conservative views on a subject like abortion though they recognise the urgency of ensuring safe abortion for all women.

The Supreme Court's verdict came in a case of a 25-year-old unmarried woman, whose plea to terminate a pregnancy before the completion of 24 weeks was rejected by the Delhi High Court.

She moved the apex court seeking an abortion after the Delhi High Court declined her plea. The woman’s case was that she wished to terminate her pregnancy as “her partner had refused to marry her at the last stage.”

She also argued that the continuation of the pregnancy would involve a risk of grave and immense injury to her mental health. However, the law allowed such change in circumstances only for “marital” relationships.

The Supreme Court, holding that the law had to be given a purposive interpretation, allowed the petitioner to terminate her pregnancy in an interim order. It did not touch upon the bigger challenge to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act.

We need to understand two aspects of the latest judgment.

First, the court noted the existence of intimate partner violence and said married women can become pregnant as a result of their husbands raping them. The Court said that the meaning of the words “sexual assault” or “rape” in the abortion rules includes a husband’s act of sexual assault or rape committed on his wife. Therefore, it was unfair that a married woman couldn’t access abortion till 24 weeks even though she had been sexually assaulted — by her husband.

This is very significant because proceedings are going on before the court to criminalise marital rape.

Political parties have treated this subject with great caution--though some women leaders have expressed their opinion.

Second, and most importantly, the court ruled that when it came to deciding abortion cases, significant reliance ought to be placed on a woman’s own estimation of whether she is in a position to continue her pregnancy.

At a time when abortion rights across the world are under attack, placing the onus of women’s bodily rights on women is a landmark step. "The decision to have or not to have an abortion is borne out of complicated life circumstances, which only the woman can choose on her own terms without external interference or influence," the court has said.

However, women’s rights activists say all women must feel safe to make a decision about their bodies.

Of course, India’s abortion laws may seem to be moving progressively when one sees what has happened in countries like the US where its Supreme Court has overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

But, in India unmarried and single women face greater hurdles in exercising a right over their bodies, thus leading to higher risks and complications.

Many women are forced to go to quacks when there are unwanted pregnancies. As the Court noted, unsafe abortions are a leading cause of maternal mortality.

So far, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, had limited the procedure to married women, divorcees, widows, minors, "disabled and mentally ill women" and survivors of sexual assault or rape.

As per the new ruling, unmarried women can now undergo abortions up to 24 weeks of their pregnancy, bringing them on par with married women.

Under the Act, first enacted in 1971 and amended in 2021, all women can undergo abortions legally for up to 20 weeks.

But single women were barred between 20 and 24 weeks, the limit allowed on account of mental anguish, rape and health complications, among others.

The Court has now held that this is an arbitrary distinction because it was based on outdated social mores instead of women’s right to bodily autonomy.

A three-judge Bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, A S Bopanna, and J B Pardiwala noted that allowing only married women to abort was creating misconceptions that termination of pregnancies of unmarried women is illegal. That is forcing many women to go to unregistered practitioners.

Now, this verdict, hopefully, will reverse this trend.  It will expand access to safe services, especially for marginalised women.