Recently Published Article by CORTH Senior Research Advisor Tulsi Patel
By: Centre for Cultures of Reproduction
Last updated: Friday, 18 May 2018
CORTH Senior Research Advisor Tulsi Patel, Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Dehli, has a recently published article titled, "Experiencing abortion rights in India through issues of autonomy and legality: A few controversies" in the Global Public Health Special Issue: Re-situating Abortion: Bio-Politics, Global Health and rights in Neo-liberal Times, edited by CORTH Director Maya Unnithan and Silvia de Zordo. The article developed out of a CORTH seminar from November 2014.
Abstract:
Abortion laws in India, like other laws, are premised on the 1861 British Penal Code. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act was passed in 1971 to circumvent the criminality clause around abortion. Yet the law continues to render invisible women's right to choose. Legal procedures have often hindered in permitting abortion, resulting in the death of a mother or the foetus. Despite the latest techno-medical advances, the laws have remained stagnant or rather restrictive, complicated further by selective female foetus abortions. Legal resistance to abortion-seeking after 20 weeks gestation adversely affects women, depriving them of autonomy of choice. In this paper, raising important gender, health and ethical issues are illustrated through a recent legal case in India. Feminist campaigns against the legal mindset in India are emerging.