The beauty of being a woman is the most honoured art of the ultimate creator. The ability that nature gave to women to nurture and give birth to another being is itself one of the notable and worth appreciating experiences of life. From the very beginning from conceiving a child to giving birth it is not only a rollercoaster of emotions but also a journey that ends having a little creature in hand.

But the experience and the ending is not same for every women. Some end that miserably and some start the journey not by consent, some crave for motherhood and some curse its existence as its result of an horrific incident that happened for the lust of a man.

Though every woman wants to experience this beautiful phase of being a woman but not all have the same story to share. Multiple reasons and different complication result in the termination of pregnancy. Not unlike other phases of women's life there are limitations to when and how a woman could undergo a termination of pregnancy. Termination of pregnancy commonly known as abortion is a multi layer topic of discussion that we will unfold gradually.

Introduction
Medical Termination of pregnancy commonly known as abortion is legally regulated in most parts of the world. According to World Health Organization (WHO) as in 2021 around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year. Six out of 10(61%) of all the unintended pregnancies and 3 out of 10(29%) of all pregnancies, end in induced abortions.

Comprehensive abortion care is included in the list of essential health care services published by WHO in 2020. Abortion is not just a medical procedure laws made by various countries around the world regulating abortion practices in their region and case laws related to it give a legal aspect to the termination of pregnancy. Further we are going to discuss certain laws and their evolution in various regions of the world particularly the US and our nation India.

The article further lays emphasis on the abortion carried out in countries lacking medical facilities and their access. Medical termination of pregnancy in addition to being a procedure involves a lot of changes in the body of a women and stress to mind. As we proceed further we will attend the emotions of women who undergo through the procedure of abortion and life beyond that.

Abortion a Medical Procedure

There are four commonly used procedures conducted by doctors for the medical termination of pregnancy. The method opted depends on the number of weeks that have passed since the last menstruation. First method includes prescribing pills to end pregnancy at early stages. The most common regimen includes taking two pills mifepristone and misoprostol. If you are in 12 to 13 weeks of your pregnancy Vacuum Aspiration or Suction Abortion could be used for the termination of pregnancy.

If you are more than 12 weeks pregnant, your provider will use an ultrasound to date your pregnancy. Doctors can do Vacuum Aspiration until about 14 weeks only, the most common type of procedure opted in second trimester is called dilation and evacuation (D&E). If you are have gone a further long in your pregnancy, you may have to find a specialized, experienced provider to do dilation and extraction procedure. This is something that doctors reserve for cases relating to serious problem with the foetus or medical complications related to mother.

Abortion laws in India

Section 312 of the Indian Penal Code states that "voluntarily causing miscarriage, even when the miscarriage is by the consent of pregnant women." is a criminal offence. However as the awareness regarding rights increased in Indian Society the discussion for legislation regarding abortion started in 1960s when the government setup the Shantilal Shah committee.

In 1964 the committee presented a report in Lok Sabha which emphasized the "liberation of abortion laws in India" as a result of which "Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971" was enacted. Subsequently as the time lapsed certain shortcomings could be realized in the Act as the provisions did not align with current mentality of the society. Section 3(2)(b) of the 1971 Act did not allow the termination of pregnancy if it exceeds 20 weeks.

The court in some cases like the Mamta Verma v/s Union Of India, Meera Santosh Pal v/s Union Of India allowed termination of pregnancy if it is required to protect the life and health of women even if it exceeded 20 weeks. Other provision that needs to be considered is that according to the Act even if a married women wanted to end her pregnancy she will have to mention that it was due to failure of contraceptives which is to regarded as breach of Right to Privacy. The Act was amended twice in 1975 and 20002 but that did not bring any major changes. Further the Act was amended in 2021.

The Medical termination of pregnancy (Amendment Act) 2021 included in in its ambit even single and unmarried women. The amendment increased the maximum period for a pregnancy to be terminated from 20 weeks to 24 weeks for specific category of women based on opinion of two registered medical practitioners modifying Section 3 of the Medical termination of Pregnancy Act.

The Supreme court through its landmark judgements also included unmarried women in the category as the amendment specifically replaced the "husband" word with "partner" to cover unmarried women also. In a recent case Supreme Court denied medical termination of pregnancy in 26 weeks stating that the foetus has the right to be birthed. So the abortion laws of India not only take into account the rights of the pregnant mother but also the rights of the unborn child.

Abortion laws in the US

The Abortion laws in the US have seen a lot of change of events from criminalization in late 1800 to legislation in early 1970s and the ongoing battle for abortion cases. The landmark judgment of Roe v/s Wade in 1973 protected the right of abortion in all 50 states and set precedent that affected dozens of cases. Supreme court recognized that constitutional right of privacy is broad enough to encompass a women's decision to whether or not terminate the pregnancy. The Roe case has now been overturned and the laws governing abortion falls to individual State governments.

Conclusion
When people with unintended pregnancies face barriers to attaining safe, timely, affordable, geographically reachable, respectful and non-discriminatory abortion, they often resort to unsafe abortion. Developing countries bear the burden of 97% of all unsafe abortions. More than half of all unsafe abortions occur in Asia, most of them in south and central Asia. In Latin American and Africa, the majority (approximately 3 out of 4) of all abortions are unsafe.

In Africa, nearly half of all abortions occur under the least safe circumstances (2).Lack of access to safe, affordable, timely and respectful abortion care, and the stigma associated with abortion, pose risks to women's physical and mental well-being throughout the life-course. Progressive abortion laws and medical facilities required for safe conduction of procedure is the need of hour for every region.