How India’s abortion laws are trailing society, technology and the young single women having more sex
Faced with a 20-week limit and cultural and other legal restrictions, millions of Indian women have abortions outside hospitals and clinics, while many others do not even know the procedure is legal because of a lack of public education
Using euphemisms, Anita Adhikari, 43, says shyly that her husband wants sexual intercourse almost every day. How they manage to perform the act is a mystery. The chip board partition which separates her room in a slum in Gurgaon, a satellite city of the capital New Delhi, from the family next door is so flimsy you can hear her neighbours talking.
With two grown-up married children, Anita is far less interested in sex than her husband, but she has no choice in the matter. Like most Indian women, she has to obey his every whim.
Pregnancy problems leading cause of death for teenaged girls and young women worldwide, study finds
Anaemic and underweight, Adhkari used to miss her periods occasionally. When there was no sign of her period after three months, she assumed her menopause had started. But, feeling anxious one day in February, she went to a doctor who said she was pregnant. She went to a nearby chemist and bought an abortion pill. By now, she was in her 18th week. The pill did not work. The only option was a surgical abortion.
In India, a woman cannot have an abortion simply because she does not want the child. The idea of “choice” is missing from the law.
Adhikari’s family is complete. Her children are in their late 20s. Her son is about to become a father. “The last thing I wanted at this stage of my life, when I’m about to become a grandmother, is another child. And I just don’t have the money,” she says.
