Ensuring Real Choice: Building Accessible Safe Abortion Services in India
As International Safe Abortion Day approaches, the piece argues that legal reforms alone are insufficient without a functional health system that delivers timely, affordable, and respectful care.
Approaching International Safe Abortion Day and the fifth year since the 2021 amendment to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, the author stresses that legal progress must be matched by health-system capacity. The amendment raised the gestational ceiling for vulnerable groups to 24 weeks, allowed abortions up to 20 weeks on a single doctor's opinion, and created medical boards for late-term cases, while the Supreme Court affirmed unmarried women's right to abortion.
Yet nationwide studies reveal over 1.5 crore abortions in 2015 and a rise in reported terminations to 8.93 lakh in 2024-25, indicating high demand. Women still confront barriers such as distant providers, unaffordable costs, lack of drug supplies, stigma, and limited awareness of their rights. The piece urges investment in provider sensitivity, supply chains for abortion medicines, multilingual information campaigns, and robust, respectful referral systems, especially for adolescents, unmarried women, and those in underserved areas. Only by eliminating these obstacles can the promise of choice become a reality.
Why it matters
Legal rights mean little if women cannot access safe, affordable abortion care when needed.
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