Cabinet approves raising of upper limit for permitting abortion to 24 weeks

The Cabinet approval on the raising of upper limit for permitting abortion to 24 weeks

On Wednesday the Union Cabinet approved extending the upper limit for permitting abortions from the present 20 weeks to 24 weeks.

Cabinet approved the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.

The Bill will be introduced in the ensuing session of the Parliament.

Union Minister Prakash Javedkar says that the upper limit for permitting abortions has been extended from the present 20 weeks to 24 weeks while addressing the media after the cabinet meeting. He also added that this will ensure safe termination of the pregnancies and also give women reproductive rights over their bodies. This extension to 24 weeks is also going to help those rape victims girls with disabilities as well as minors who may not realize by themselves that they are pregnant.

The words said by him are, “in a progressive reform and giving reproductive rights to women the limit of 20 weeks of medical termination of pregnancy has been increased to 24 weeks. This is important because in the first 5 months there are cases where the girl concerned doesn’t realize and has to go to court. This was discussed with the various stakeholders. This will reduce maternal mortality.”