Medical termination of pregnancy Act

 MEDICAL TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY ACT, 1971

'Registered Medical Practitioner' is defined under Section 2(d) of the

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971. 'A Registered Medical

Practitioner,' according to it, is any medical practitioner who

possesses the required medical qualifications, as defined in Section 2

of the Indian Medical Council Act 1956, and whose name has been

registered in the state medical register, as well as the required medical

skills in gynaecology and obstetrics as prescribed by the said act.

Abortion, a topic that is frequently discussed in medico-legal circles,

intersects various streams of thought and multiple disciplines, such as

theology, because most religions have something to say about it,

ethics, because human conduct and its moral evaluation are the basic

issues involved; medicine (in several of its sub-disciplines), because

interference with the body for a curative or supposedly curative issue

is at focus; and law, because regulation of human conduct by

sanctuaries is at focus.

Abortion may be divided into several types based on the nature and

circumstances of the procedure. It might be I natural; (ii)

unintentional; (iii) spontaneous; (iv) artificial or induced abortion, for

example.

Several ethicists, including Michael Tooley, Mary Anne Warren,

James Rachels, and Virginia Ramey Mollen Kott, have proposed

criteria for what constitutes a fully human creature. For some of these

conditions, any entity, whether before or after birth, fits the bill. In

reality, according to Tooley, the new-born’s moral condition is

unaffected by birth. "Being a human" and "being a person" are two

different things, according to those who advocate complete

humanness requirements. They claim that, while the unborn are

members of the Homo sapiens species and hence human, they are not

actually persons since they do not meet a set of personhood

characteristics.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971 needs to be

amended.

1. Currently, women who wish to abort their pregnancy after 20

weeks face too many legal hurdles, but this measure aims to

change that by expanding the legal definition of pregnancy

termination from 20 to 24 weeks.

2. Every day, hundreds of women die as a result of unsafe and

illegal abortions. This measure aims to make it easier and safer

for pregnant women to be safe and protected.

3. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act has been chastised

for failing to keep up with contemporary technologies. Because

it was written in 1971, when technology was not as

sophisticated as it is now, a modification is required.

4. In the Act, it is stated that if the girl is a juvenile or under the

age of 18, the guardian's legal written consent is necessary, and

if the woman is mad or lunatic, the guardian's legal written

consent is required. This clause is referenced in the Medical

Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971, and the proposed law aims

to exclude it.

5. The cumbersome legal provisions of the present Medical

Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 would be simplified by this

proposed measure. This will make it easier for many women to

terminate their pregnancies in a more convenient and effective

manner.

On March 2, 2020, Dr Harshvardhan Goyal, Minister of Health and

Family Welfare, tabled the Medical Termination of Pregnancy

(Amendment) Bill 2020 in the Lok Sabha. The bill aims to make

changes to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971, which

governs safe and authorised abortion. The bill also aims to change

several of the Act's provisions.

The bill also proposes to increase the time limit for terminating a

pregnancy from 20 to 24 weeks, making it simpler and more

convenient for a woman to safely and legally terminate an undesired

pregnancy. It also aims to improve pregnant women's safety,

gestational period, and anonymity.