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The Medically Terminated Pregnancy Act was not created to prevent female foeticide. It is India's version of Roe v. Wade. Under the British law abortion was illegal. The MTP act of 1971 made abortion legal and medically accessible.
The MTP acts role is to outline and define abortion rights and limitations in India. A pregnancy under 12 weeks can be aborted without any concern. 12-20 weeks is late term abortion and requires opinions of two medical professionals. The extension from 20-24 weeks or more is a purely medical question related to the health of mother and infant. If the life of the mother is at risk or the fetus is diagnosed with terminal or life debilitating illness, I see no reason to not extend the time frame. Remember the intent of this law is the rights and choices of the mother.
It is extremely crucial that we separate abortion from female foeticide.
The PCPNDT act is the one that is designed to prevent female foeticides. This act declares gender screening and testing of infants to be illegal. Any preconception and prenatal diagnostics and testing is to be done only for health reasons not to identify gender. This law strictly defines the scope of PCPNDT practices. It stipulates what is illegal and outlines penalties for those breaches.
The government has done its role in preventing female foeticide by making it illegal to obtain the gender of the child. It forces abortion decisions to be independent of gender. It is also trying its best to educate people.
The government has actually fulfilled their role to the best of their capacity. It is now up to society to follow these laws, report illegal activity and change their attitudes in general.
Again though, I cannot reiterate how extremely extremely crucial it is to support abortion rights and separate it from female foeticide. There are many religious and conservative entities trying to attack a woman's right to choose. There are many religious and conservative entities trying to deny women the right to have abortion under any circumstance. By tying abortion and female foeticide we are actually ironically empowering those who engage in an attack on women.
The MTP acts role is to outline and define abortion rights and limitations in India. A pregnancy under 12 weeks can be aborted without any concern. 12-20 weeks is late term abortion and requires opinions of two medical professionals. The extension from 20-24 weeks or more is a purely medical question related to the health of mother and infant. If the life of the mother is at risk or the fetus is diagnosed with terminal or life debilitating illness, I see no reason to not extend the time frame. Remember the intent of this law is the rights and choices of the mother.
It is extremely crucial that we separate abortion from female foeticide.
The PCPNDT act is the one that is designed to prevent female foeticides. This act declares gender screening and testing of infants to be illegal. Any preconception and prenatal diagnostics and testing is to be done only for health reasons not to identify gender. This law strictly defines the scope of PCPNDT practices. It stipulates what is illegal and outlines penalties for those breaches.
The government has done its role in preventing female foeticide by making it illegal to obtain the gender of the child. It forces abortion decisions to be independent of gender. It is also trying its best to educate people.
The government has actually fulfilled their role to the best of their capacity. It is now up to society to follow these laws, report illegal activity and change their attitudes in general.
Again though, I cannot reiterate how extremely extremely crucial it is to support abortion rights and separate it from female foeticide. There are many religious and conservative entities trying to attack a woman's right to choose. There are many religious and conservative entities trying to deny women the right to have abortion under any circumstance. By tying abortion and female foeticide we are actually ironically empowering those who engage in an attack on women.
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