For decades women have fought all over the world to gain control over one of the most important decisions that involves their own lives – abortion. Pregnancies are good, in most cases.
Pregnancies are good when they are planned; however, not so much when they threaten to damage a woman’s health or even worse, take her life! Then there are cases where the fetus is deformed or has very little chance of survival. What happens then?
Recently, Oklahoma passed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. What is with the regressive laws that take away an important right from the women of the country? Let us read a little about how things went down in the state of Oklahoma.
Taking hints from a leaked High Court draft opinion that suggests that the judges and several members of the jury are considering the option of weakening or overturning the landmark 1973 Roe versus Wade decision. The bill is an important element of an aggressive drive by some states to limit abortion rights.
The Oklahoma bill by Rep. Wendi Stearman, a Republican, imposes ban all abortions except to save the life of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to the police.
“Is our goal to defend the right to life, or isn’t it?” was a question asked by Stearman to her colleagues before the bill was passed by a majority of 73-16 votes along the party lines. The Governor of Oklahoma Kevin Stitt, who is a Republican, signed the bill on June 1st, 2022. This happens to be one of the strictest abortion measures to be signed in the country.
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These types of archaic laws are a sure-shot way to negatively impact the individual in concern, their immediate family and more.
Let us now look into India’s abortion law. In many ways, our country has managed to not snub the consent of women altogether.
The MTP Act or the Medical Termination Of Pregnancy Act of 1971 initially permitted women to undergo abortion up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Later, in 2017, the time period was extended up to 24 weeks. It also states that the procedure shall only be carried out by a registered medical practitioner.
A woman can undergo an abortion if the pregnancy is a result of incest/rape, failed contraception as well as fetal deformations. However, one cannot simply walk in and pop in a termination pill unless they have a prescription.
The MPT act was initially propagated as a measure to control the population.
While the US continues to strangle women’s rights, India quite cleverly uses the liberal abortion act as a measure of population control.
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Sources: The Week, Business Insider, Al Jazeera
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This post is tagged under: india, Feminism, USA, women, Abortion laws in india, abortion law in india vs abroad, abortion rights
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