THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 31 January 2020 (A deliverance: On pregnancy termination bill (The Hindu))

A deliverance: On pregnancy termination bill (The Hindu)

• The Centre’s move to extend the limit of medical termination of pregnancy to 24 weeks is a sagacious recognition of this, and needs to be feted.

Why it is so significant?

• The extension is significant, the government reasoned, because in the first five months of pregnancy, some women realise the need for an abortion very late.
• Usually, the foetal anomaly scan is done during the 20th-21st week of pregnancy. If there is a delay in doing this scan, and it reveals a lethal anomaly in the foetus, 20 weeks is limiting.
• Obstetricians argue that this has also spurred a cottage industry of places providing unsafe abortion services, even leading, in the worst of cases, to the death of the mother.
• When women take the legal route to get formal permission for termination after 20 weeks, the tedium is often frustrating and stressful for a mother already distressed by the bad news regarding her baby.
• The extension of limit would ease the process for these women, allowing the mainstream system itself to take care of them, delivering quality medical attention.

Factors related with abortion:

• The question of abortion needs to be decided on the basis of human rights, the principles of solid science, and in step with advancements in technology.
• A key aspect of the legality governing abortions has always been the ‘viability’ of the foetus.
• This indicates, in human gestation, the period from which a foetus is capable of living outside the womb.
• As technology improves, with infrastructure upgradation, and with skilful professionals driving medical care, this ‘viability’ naturally improves.
• Viability is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks.

Way forward:

• Ultimately, nations will have to decide the outer limit also based on the capacity of their health systems to deliver care without danger to the life of the mother; there is no uniform gestational viability for abortion.
• It needs to ensure that all norms and standardised protocols in clinical practice to facilitate abortions are followed in health care institutions across the country.
• Since everything rests on the delivery, stopping short would undoubtedly make this progressive order a mere half measure.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the giant straight-tusked elephant, consider the following statements:
1. The straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene.
2. Palaeoloxodon namadicus or the Asian straight-tusked elephant, was a species of prehistoric elephant that ranged throughout Pleistocene Asia.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: C
Mains Questions:
Q.1) What are the significances of extending the pregnancy termination bill?