Supreme Court: Every woman has the right to abort her pregnancy
Married or single, every woman has rights over her body. So she can abort the pregnant child if she wants, the Supreme Court said in a historic verdict. As a result, the right of unmarried women to have an abortion was also legalised as a result of this directive. The court ordered, be it married or out of wedlock, if the pregnant child is born from rape, then the child can be destroyed by the pregnant woman. That is, through this directive, the Supreme Court has indirectly accepted the existence of marital rape in Indian law.
“Don’t cling to old ideas. You have to move with time, you have to take the necessary steps. “, the division bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud of the Supreme Court commented on Thursday. By court orders, all women in the country are entitled to a safe and legal abortion. It is unconstitutional to make any distinction between married and unmarried women in this regard.
In the country, ‘single’ women could also have abortions, but unmarried women who became pregnant were considered to be ‘raped’ in the eyes of the law. The law had the view that a woman was “married” to bear children. This time, the court said that, breaking the legal division, any woman can have an abortion up to 24 weeks after conception. She was no longer eligible to be legally married. If a woman is consensually pregnant, she has the right to abort the child.
At the same time, the apex court commented, “Abortion may also be necessary due to ‘marital rape’. ‘Marital rape’ will also be treated as ‘rape’ in the case of abortion. Despite the fact that several cases related to ‘marital rape’ still pending in the apex court have not been settled, such comments by the court are considered significant.
