:: Abortion is the word - Killing is da purpose ::. Review on Dealing with Pregnancy

Abortion or Killing: Whenever I listen this word “Abortion” one scene from Bollywood movie “Salaam Namaste” strikes in my mind. Our Bollywood hunk Nik(Nikhil Chopra, but he doesn’t like to be called as Nikhil Chopra) hears that his miss charming Amber is pregnant. He is much tensed. After some superfluous shouting he says “JUST KILL IT”. Amber replies, “Abortion is the word Nik”. I do agree with her, “Abortion” is the word but surely the purpose is killing, killing her / his own baby.

Background: As a normal IT professional when I go back to my home in evening, I prefer to jump on some news channels to update myself with the latest happenings. From last few days or rather few months I’m sadden to see increasing number of “Fetus Killing” stories especially from places like Western UP, Haryana and Rajasthan. It prompted me to write on this topic and make people aware about this cruel act.

What is Pregnancy?

Pregnancy is the carrying of one or more embryos or fetuses by female mammals, including humans, inside their bodies. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations(for example, in the case of twins, or triplets). Childbirth usually occurs about 38 weeks from fertilization.

What is Abortion?

Abortion is the termination of pregnancy by any method(spontaneous or induced) before the fetus is sufficiently developed to survive independently.(fetus less than 20 weeks of pregnancy).

Every government has it’s own rule on Abortion, hence Indian government also have some ruling for this. Let’s have a glance to it.

Medical Termination of Pregnancy:  The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act was enacted by the Indian Parliament in 1971 and came into force from 01 April, 1972. The MTP act was again revised in 1975. Act No. 34 of 1971 was amended by Act No. 64 of 2002. The MTP Act lays down the condition under which a pregnancy can be terminated, the persons and the place to perform it.

The reasons, for which MTP is done, as interpreted from the Indian MTP Act, are:

(i) Where a pregnant woman has a serious medical disease and continuation of pregnancy could endanger her life like:

•           Heart diseases.

*•           Severe rise in blood pressure.

*•           Uncontrolled vomiting during pregnancy

*•           Cervical/ breast cancer.

*•           Diabetes mellitus with eye complication(retinopathy).

*•           Epilepsy.

*•           Psychiatric illness.

(ii) Where the continuation of pregnancy could lead to substantial risk to the newborn leading to serious physical / mental handicaps examples like

•           Chromosomal abnormalities.

*•           Rubella(German measles) viral infection to mother in first three months.

*•           If previous children have congenital abnormalities.

*•           Rh iso-immunisation. link

*•           Exposure of the foetus to irradiation.

(iii) Pregnancy resulting of rape.

(iv) Conditions where the socio-economic status of the mother(family) hampers the progress of a healthy pregnancy and the birth of a healthy child.

Failure of Contraceptive Device irrespective of the method used(natural methods/ barrier methods/ hormonal methods).

This condition is a unique feature of the Indian Law. All the pregnancies can be terminated using this criterion.

Consent:

Married Woman: Her own written consent. Husband’s consent not required.

*Unmarried Girl(above 18 Years): Her own written consent.

*Unmarried Girl(below 18 Years): Written consent of her guardian.

*Mentally unstable Woman: Written consent of her guardian.

Consent **assures the clinician performing the abortion that she has been informed of all her options. She has been counseled about the procedure, its risks and how to care for herself after she chosen the abortion of her own free will.

The act is debatable: The definition of each term is given in this act but the above ruling is debatable as most of us will not agree with all of them. For example do you think a married woman should be allowed to kill her own baby by her own written consent? Do you think that an unmarried girl below 18 should be allowed to kill her baby by written consent of her parents? Even Socio-economic status should not be a criterion.

It should be simple and straight forward: There are lots of other legal complexities involved for creating a healthy society. Shouldn’t we make this rule simple and straight forward? It’s just like a murder and it should be treated in same manner regardless of one’s consent.

Most of the people go for these abortions only for two reasons.

Killing Girls: India a country of thousands of goddesses is highly suffered from this disease of killing girls even before they take an independent breath. Sadly women are equally guilty in this cruel act.

Illegal – Social Impact: Some youthful lust also leads to killing its own baby. The reason is simple; it will impact the social prestige of these people. If a person can kill his/her own baby for social status you can imagine what kind of society s/he will create? I wonder how they live their life normally after killing their own baby. Don’t they have any shame or regret?

I hope to see some good move from Indian government on this. It’s a very serious matter and if some people don’t have their humanity then we must teach them the act of humanity by forcing tough laws.

Courtesy:

*https://1to9months.com

*https://en.wikipedia.org