The Supreme Court of India recently asked the Central government to amend the abortion law to remove the time limit on medical terminations of unwanted pregnancies in the case of minor rape victims. While this was observation was made while hearing the case of a 15-year-old rape survivor to terminate a 30-week pregnancy, it throws up broader questions of abortion access in India.

While in general there is a belief is that abortion is legal and easily available, the ground reality is a little different. Abortion is legal only under certain circumstances and given certain conditions – it is not freely available to anyone who chooses to have it. Access to it is also uneven and patchy across the country. It also not permitted, unless there is severe foetal anomaly or a risk to the mother’s life, beyond 24 weeks.

Over the past decade or so, hundreds of cases have ended up in court seeking terminations on unwanted pregnancy. Why is this happening? Is there a case to be made to lift time limits altogether? And do we, in India, need to move from a criminal framework for a health service to a health and rights -based framework?

Guests: Prof Dipika Jain, Executive Dean & Professor of Law, Director, Centre for Justice, Law and Society, Jindal Global Law School; Dr Alka Barua, Abortion Theme Lead and Steering Committee member, CommonHealth India

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Producer: Jude Francis Weston

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