The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill was passed by both the Houses of the Parliament and received the assent of thePresident of India on 10th August, 1971. It came on the Statute Book as the "The MTP Act, 1971". This law guarantees the Right of Women in India to terminate an unintended pregnancy by a registered medical practitioner in a hospital established or maintained by the Government or a place being approved for the purpose of this Act by the Government. Not all pregnancies could be terminated. The declared objects and reasons of the Act state that pregnancy can be terminated :

(1) As a health measure when there is danger to the life or risk to physical or mental health of the women;
(2) On humanitarian grounds – such as when pregnancy arises from a sex crime like rape or intercourse with a lunatic woman, etc. and
(3) Eugenic grounds – where there is a substantial risk that the child, if born, would suffer from deformities and diseases.

As per Section 7 of the Act "Power to make Regulations:

(1) The State government may, by regulations, require any such opinion as is referred to in sub-section
(2) Section 3 to be certified by a registered medical practitioner or practitioners concerned, in such form and at such times as may be specified in such regulations and the preservation or disposal of such certificates.

In addition, under the Act, there are regulations for maintaining records.

Further, as per Section 7 of the Act, medical practitioner who terminates a pregnancy is to give intimation of such termination and such other information relating to the termination as may be specified in such regulations; prohibit the disclosure, except to such persons and for such purposes as may be specified in such regulations of intimations given or information furnished in pursuance of such regulations. The intimation given and the information furnished in pursuance of the regulations made by virtue of Clause [b] of Sub-section [1] shall be given or furnished, as the case may be, to the Chief Medical Officer of the State. It has been further provided that any person who willfully contravenes or willfully fails to comply with the requirements of any regulation made under sub-section [1] shall be liable to be punished with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees.

Despite gains in women’s health realized by the MTP Act, the number of illegal and unsafe abortions in India continues to be very high with a large number of abortions being performed every year by untrained persons in totally unhygienic conditions. Complications of unsafe abortions remain a major factor in contributing to high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country.

The MTP Act, 1971 was amended by the MTP (Amendment) Act, 2002. The main objective of the recent amendment to the MTP Act aimed at reducing the rate of unsafe abortions by making legal abortion more widely accessible. Lack of access to MTP services at the primary healthcare level is an important reason for the high rate of unsafe and illegal abortions. The amendment is aiming at decentralization of authority for approval and registration of MTP centres from the State to the district level. The current system for approving such centres is extremely cumbersome and slow. At the same time, however, efforts atdecentralization need to be closely monitored to ensure that a speedier approval process does not compromise quality of care, and that adequate resources for both training and technology are made available. There is an increase in punishment in violations of the Act.

Medical abortion is one that is brought about by taking medication that will end a pregnancy. The alternative is surgical abortion [as dealt with by the MTP Act, 1971], which ends a pregnancy by emptying the uterus with its associated complications and infection. Medical abortions can be performed as early as pregnancy can be confirmed. Infact, the shorter the time that a woman has been pregnant, better will the medication work. Medication can be taken under proper supervision and appropriate counseling. It requires almost no infrastructure and no surgery. Though medical abortions are safer, easier and moreeffective, surgical abortions continue to be the most common method, as the majority of the population in the rural and urban areas is still ignorant about the availability and technique of medical abortion.

A suitable and specific amendment in the MTP Act 1971 is urgently required. Keeping in tune with the changed times and techniques, effort should be made to push for relevant amendment of the MTP Act so that a medical practitioner would legally terminate a pregnancy by using the drugs for medical abortion without contravention of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act or the Indian Penal Code or any other Act for the time being in force. Such an amendment can also lay down the procedure of medical abortion and issue such guidelines and rules so as to restrict its misuse.