Guidance Handbook on Ensuring Access to Safe Abortion and Addressing Gender Biased Sex Selection

While abortion has been legal in India since 1971, women have to still face severe complications that can be prevented by ensuring access to safe abortion services. At the same time, declining sex ratio in India is an important area that requires immediate intervention. Both abortion and sex determination are governed by laws in our country. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 legalises abortion in India under certain conditions. The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC&PNDT) (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 as amended in 2003 has been enacted to prevent misuse of pre-conception and pre-natal diagnostic techniques for determining the sex of the foetus. The Guidance: Ensuring Access to Safe Abortion and Addressing Gender-Biased Sex Selection was issued by the GoI to ensure clarity on both the issues.

The purpose of the Guidance Handbook is to provide clear information to implementing and monitoring authorities of the MTP Act and the PC&PNDT Act for effective implementation of both the laws. To ensure that efforts of the wide array of stakeholders are synergetic, it is important to create opportunity for collaboration between relevant stakeholders in line with the strategies elaborated in the Guidance Handbook.