The Right to Reproductive Autonomy: Decoding the Medical Termination Act 1971 Amendment, A Verdict on Reproductive and Sexual Rights of Women in India.

Abstract

The Indian Supreme Court's ruling on abortion on September 29, 2022, highlights the importance of women's reproductive rights and consent. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act and Rules were interpreted by the Indian Supreme Court to reaffirm the reproductive rights of women and people with varied gender identities who require access to safe and legal abortion services. The ruling recognized unintended pregnancy as a life-altering reproductive choice that results in unsafe abortions and maternal deaths, and as a human rights problem that is both the source and effect of gender inequality and discrimination. The decision also highlighted that no regulation should be based on patriarchal principles about what constitutes permissible sex, and it acknowledged marital rape as a crime. The Indian judgement can serve as a model for other progressive laws and rulings to uphold and defend the rights and welfare of women. The decision upholds the international commitments made at the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, which highlighted the fundamental importance of women's empowerment and the rights to an unrestricted sexual and reproductive life as essential to sustainable development.

However, access to safe and legal abortions is still limited in India, with unsafe abortions being the third-leading cause of maternal death. This research paper titled, ‘The Right to Reproductive Autonomy: Decoding the Medical Termination Act 1971 Amendment, a Verdict on Reproductive and Sexual Rights of Women in India’ is an attempt to highlight the historic decision. Comprehensive changes to the MTP Act must make it more inclusive and sympathetic to the suffering of married women who are coerced into becoming pregnant and carrying it to term against their will, and to cover the financial hardship a woman must bear when raising a kid.