The term abortion is not alien to a person, as it must been have been heard by him several times whether it is movie or it is news. The viewpoint of different persons has been different on the legality of abortion. Some argues that it is equivalent to murder, on the other had it has been argued by others that it is a right a of a woman to choose “Whether she wants to give birth or not”. Canadian Intermediate Dictionary as “the deliberate ending of a pregnancy by causing the fetus to be expelled from a woman’s womb”, and it has remained one of the most controversial and ethical issues in Indian political and social scenario. Sometimes, it becomes a moral issue, sometimes it becomes an ethical issue, sometimes it becomes a constitutional issue and so on. It would very difficult to resolve the issue of abortion. Although, Indian Law has legalized the abortion, but it can be done only under special circumstances. There are various reasons behind legalizing abortion in certain special circumstances, because there has been a danger of persons undergoing abortion process in unhygienic conditions and without proper care. Let us have a look over certain laws and issues which relates to the Abortion in the Indian Society. Abortion and Indian Law The Indian legal system has always kept itself away from the legality of abortion for a long period of time due to various reasons. It has remained a matter of great concern, because their was a kind of fear in the minds of lawmakers that in case abortion becomes legalized, then there would a huge increase in practice of female foeticide. In the states like Haryana and Punjab, where the sex ratio is pathetic, there was a great concern over this issue. It would not be wrong to say that the practice of female foeticide was quite popular in North India, and it was the main reason why government was not willing to enact a law which would give legal right to a person to terminate the pregnancy. There had a large number of cases where women were willing to give birth to the child, but due to the pressure of her in-laws, she was forced to terminate her pregnancy. But even after all these concerns, legal status was provided to the abortion in the year Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act under which pregnancy can be terminated. Under this provision, only doctors are eligible to perform the abortion and that too under special circumstances, and it has not been easy for a person to terminate the pregnancy. There are various reported Supreme Court and High Court cases which deal the matter of the abortion. Sometimes petitions have been filed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution stating that a woman has a Right to Life and Personal Liberty and if he doesn’t want to have a child, then she should be allowed to terminate the pregnancy. The current status in Indian scenario is that Abortion is allowed, but under special circumstances. The matter of concern relating to abortion is not confined only to India. There are various, or one should say a majority of countries which had remained very reluctant in enacting a law relating to the legalization of Abortion. Concern is not confined to the foecticide, but there are various cases of abortion when it is the woman who had to give up her life . According to the Consortium on National Consensus for Medical Abortion in India, every year an average of about 11 million abortions take place annually and around 20,000 women die every year due to abortion related complications. Following this, in the year 1994 determination of the sex of the fetus in India was criminalised. The number of Abortion cases in India in the year 2000 was 723142,and that is not a small figure. Abortion and Indian Society The issues of Abortion in the Indian Society has always remained a controversial issue. There have been a number of opposition from the various section considering the law which legalize abortion as a law against morality. Various persons, who claimed themselves to be religious leaders criticize this law and state that the act of abortion is equivalent to the murder i.e. Killing a of child who has not seen the world. According to them , every person has a right to life and so the children who had not taken birth. On the other hand this law is favoured by several other sections of the society claiming that it is the right of a woman ” Whether she wants to give birth to a child or not”, and if someone is forcing her to give birth to the child, then he is violating her life to life and personal liberty. It can be concluded that the issue of abortion in India would remain a controversial one.

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