The Act underwent amendments in 2002 which provided women with accessibility to safe and legal abortion services. In 2021, the Act was once again amended which, amongst other things, permitted ‘women’, notably without any classification as to their marital status, to seek abortion, where the pregnancy does not exceed 20 weeks, even on the grounds of contraceptive failure used either by the ‘woman’ or ‘her partner’, replaced from the previous words ‘married woman’ or ‘her husband.” The new legislation also increased the gestation limit to 24 weeks for certain “categories’ of woman as may be prescribed by rules made under this Act.” The problem lies in this ‘categorization’ and the rules that have been framed add the curve-ball of marital status and only a change in such status as a ground for abortion
Source: Barandbench
