Version imprimableALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION
2253-E, Shadi Khampur, New Ranjit Nagar, New Delhi - 110008
hone: 011-25700476, 25709565 Email: aidwacec[at]gmail.com
Website: aidwaonline.org
Date: October 1, 2022
AIDWA STATEMENT ON THE SC JUDGEMENT ON ABORTION RIGHTS
The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) welcomes the judgment of three judges of the Supreme Court in the case of X v. The Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi in which the Supreme Court held that unmarried women have the right to access safe and legal abortions between twenty and twenty-four weeks of pregnancy, if they face a change in their material circumstances, similar to married women. The Delhi High Court, which first heard the petition, had held that Section 3(2)(b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 ("MTP Act") and Rule 38 of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003 ("MTP Rules") was inapplicable to the case because the pregnant woman was unmarried and her pregnancy arose out of a consensual relationship.
Section 3(2)(b) of the MTP Act, 1971 allows the termination of a pregnancy, where the length of the pregnancy is between twenty and twenty-four weeks, of such categories of women
