Medical Termination of Pregnancy in India (Latest Laws)

The strides in modern medicine have truly separated us from animals. We can provide limbs to our limbless, remove cancers from our diseased and everything in between. Yet, we hold ourselves back in some areas owing to our ethno-religious mores and moralities which on broad basis are beneficial but seem frighteningly disastrous on certain individual events. It is with this realization, we set out to codify our laws which broadly subscribe to our moralities while taking into account the specific requirements of special circumstances.
The debate over medical termination of pregnancies is one such case where the pro-life and pro-choice camps have lobbied hard to sustain their belief systems even to the extent of radical and even perverse arguments giving lawmakers all over the world the arduous task of finding a suitable balance between the two. Balance can crudely be defined as the position that is equally not equitably acceptable to both camps while requiring both camps to forego some of their radical positions, again equally not equitably. All this is easier said than done.
According to WHO, the abortion rates in countries where it is legal is similar to countries where it is not. This data alone should nudge our lawmakers to make sure that if desired by the mother, medical termination of pregnancy should be made available to her barring which, her own health will be jeopardized at the hands of back alley abortion clinics. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution protects Life and personal Liberty of Indian citizens and even foreigners (except enemy aliens). The Supreme Court had held that this includes the right to live with human dignity and all those aspects which make life meaningful. If the woman ends up pregnant for whatever reasons and wants to abort the foetus for whatever reason, forcing her to carry the child against her will certainly infringes her rights under Article 21. Similarly, if we already have a law (MTP 1971) which allows abortions in certain cases to desirous women and yet disallows it to others, it can be argued that both women being equally situated are being treated unequally in contravention to Article 14 of the Indian Constitution which grants equality of law and equal protection of law.
The current MTP Act of India and even the draft bill pending in the Parliament disallow abortions after 20 and 24 weeks respectively unless certain foetal abnormalities are detected or risks grave injury to the mother. This upper limit of 20 weeks is proposed to be extended to 24 weeks via the draft bill in light of certain foetal abnormalities that manifest after 20 weeks and up to the 24th week. This scientific approach in its cold calculations disregards the socio-geographic realities of almost non existent healthcare facilities in our hilly, tribal and North Eastern regions. This unevenness perpetuates the disadvantages of the historically disadvantaged communities and borders on state sanctioned social injustice which under Article 46 of the Indian Constitution is what the state is mandated to prevent.
On the pro-life side, conservative values colour the discourse. Life is considered sacred and extends this belief to include the life of the foetus. Proponents of the other camp love to quote Roe v. Wade but conveniently forget that the same Roe (real name Norma McCorvey) in McCorvey v. Hill asked the American Supreme Court to reverse their judgement in her previous case as she had become pro-life ever since. Abortion procedures carry similar risks as operating procedures and the law in its current form acts as a deterrent to unsafe procedures by untrained quacks and hacks through its penal provisions. The draft bill now includes Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha practitioners as well as nurses and auxiliary nurse midwives under the definition of healthcare provider which implies that access to abortion is going to increase manifold by literally a stroke of a pen.
Therefore, it is imperative that abortion laws pay due respect to the wishes of the mother and provide due protection to the foetus. One such way of doing it is by scrapping the time limit on abortions and mandatory counseling of the abortion seeker on the risks associated with  abortions and benefits of contraception. This obviously does not apply to victims of sexual assault who need to be treated with more care and dignity.
Alternative medicine practitioners and nurses while can be consulted but ultimate abortion procedure must be kept in the hands of a medical doctor to minimize risks involved.
The government should set minimum standards for the clinic to be considered an abortion clinic and must be subject to periodic checks and reviews.
The penal provisions for quacks and hacks must be made more stringent.
There should be no discrimination on the basis of marital status of the abortion seeker.