While deciding on a recent case, the Supreme Court has indicated that it will interpret the law to include “unmarried woman” or “single woman” under the same provisions that allow widowed or divorced women the right to abortions till up to 24 weeks. The bench, consisting of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, AS Bopanna and JB Pardiwala, made the observation while hearing the petition of a 25-year-old woman who challenged the low 20-week limit that applies to single women seeking an abortion under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971.The woman said she had been abandoned by her partner, a situation which the bench said was similar to those faced by widowed or divorced women.
“Going by the legislative intent, a widow has lost support of her life partner and in divorce too, there is loss of support from life partner,” the bench noted. “This logic will equally apply to a woman who has been abandoned.”
The apex court’s decision overcomes a specific gap in the rules laid down by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act. Rule 3B(c) of the act, enforced in 2003, allows women who undergo change of marital status due to widowhood or divorce during pregnancy to undergo abortion till up to 24 weeks. “Take a case where a married woman is neither divorced nor widowed, but deserted,” the bench argued. “She is cast away and has no source of livelihood. Should the law be understood to mean that because she is technically not divorced, she cannot have the right to abort her pregnancy?”
Extending the same logic to unmarried women, the bench said the following in its order: While deciding on a recent case, the Supreme Court has indicated that it will interpret the law to include “unmarried woman” or “single woman” under the same provisions that allow widowed or divorced women the right to abortions till up to 24 weeks. The bench, consisting of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, AS Bopanna and JB Pardiwala, made the observation while hearing the petition of a 25-year-old woman who challenged the low 20-week limit that applies to single women seeking an abortion under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971. “For the purpose of a woman’s mental health, both actual and foreseeable factors have to be borne in mind. A woman, on being deserted, faces foreseeable difficulties. Such a situation where a woman is abandoned will apply to both a married and unmarried woman.”
The court was faced with a similar situation when another 25-year-old woman, who was in a consensual relationship that ended soon before she discovered her pregnancy, appealed to the Delhi High Court for a termination of pregnancy beyond the 20-week limit. The Delhi HC declined permission on the ground that she was unmarried. The woman then appealed to the Supreme Court, which allowed her to abort the pregnancy at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), arguing that the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act recognised a woman’s bodily autonomy and reproductive rights, and allowing her to suffer an unwanted pregnancy would violate this intent.