Twenty weeks, twenty-four weeks and a Medical Board under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971

Background

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 sets out when a pregnancy can lawfully be ended in India. Section 3 shields a registered medical practitioner from any offence under the Indian Penal Code or other law when the termination follows the Act. Up to twenty weeks, the opinion of one registered medical practitioner is enough. Beyond twenty weeks and up to twenty-four weeks, two registered medical practitioners must agree, and only for the categories of women prescribed by rules under the Act. The grounds are a risk to the life of the pregnant woman, grave injury to her physical or mental health, or a substantial risk that the child would be born with a serious physical or mental abnormality. Failure of a contraceptive device or method may be presumed to cause the woman grave injury to her mental health, and a pregnancy caused by rape shall be so presumed. The length-of-pregnancy limits do not apply where substantial foetal abnormalities are diagnosed by a Medical Board. Every State Government and Union territory has to constitute such a Medical Board by notification in the Official Gazette; the twenty-four weeks ceiling and the Board came in by amendment, through a Bill of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that was passed by Lok Sabha and then by Rajya Sabha.