Abortion Rights Vs Ethics | 07 Oct 2022

For Mains: Abortion Rights Vs Rights of Unborn

Recently, in a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India allowed abortions up to 24 weeks for all women, including unmarried women.

Issues with Respect to Women’s Right:
- Woman’s Right over her Body:
  - A woman's right over her body has been advocated as a premise for freedom.
  - One cannot force a woman to bear a child in her womb and give birth to a child if she does not want to do so for various reasons.
- Health:
  - Unwanted pregnancies affect both physical and mental health.
- Gender Equality:
  - The right to abortion is vital for gender equality.
  - The right to abortion should be part of a portfolio of pregnancy rights that enables women to make a truly free choice whether to end a pregnancy.
Issues with respect to Feotus:
- Right to Life: Abortion amounts to the murder of a living being.
- Motherly Care: It is a unique unspoken bond shared between two lives, which cannot be questioned or regulated by laws.
Issues with respect to Society in General:
- Responsibility of State: The State has the responsibility of valuing each life.
- Inclusion of all: Abortion should not become a mechanism of social control for avoiding the appearance of differences or disabilities.
- Giving better life for Existing Children: Many times, parents want abortion to be able to give a good life to existing children instead of dividing their meager resources into more children.

Abortion is not viewed by some as liberating, but rather as a way for society not to cater to women's needs.
Women don't need free abortion access, but their needs for financial and social survival as mothers are what they need for equality:
- inexpensive, readily available childcare
- a workplace or school that acknowledges the needs of mothers,
  - e.g., providing flexible scheduling and maternity leave,
- state support that helps to reintegrate a woman into the workforce

Ethical approaches to abortion frequently invoke four principles.
- Respect for patients’ autonomy
- Nonmaleficence (do no harm)
- Beneficence (beneficial care) and
- Justice
The abortion dilemma has overlapping issues from different realms like legal, medical, ethical, philosophical, religious and human rights and it should be analysed from different perspectives.
There cannot be any hard and fast rule over abortion and it must be discussed and deliberated to evolve a common consensus.