Abuse and rape of women in India have been a struggle of India for a long time. India saw an 82% increase in rape in 2016 compared to 2015. 95% of rapists are in fact not strangers but family members and friends. India’s main human rights violation is due to large-scale sexual abuse of women. Some surveys by India’s government say that 42% of women in India have been sexually abused.
In an effort to combat the abuse, India recently backed abortion laws to help protect female reproductive rights. This law will hopefully help the millions of girls and women who are abused, raped, etc. The law extends the abortion deadline from 20 weeks to 24 weeks. However, abortions in India are conditional. Abortions are only allowed in circumstances involving rape, risk of disability, risk to the mother, or if contraceptive fails. If the bill passes, India’s view on abortion would more align with Greece, Finland, and Taiwan who also have a deadline of 24 weeks for abortions. Globally most countries are trending toward allowance of abortion under circumstances similar to India’s, but many states in the United States are restricting abortion more and more with the Pro-Life campaign.
The push for the new law which extends abortion deadlines from 20 weeks to 24 weeks comes from an increase of women who sought court permission for abortions past the 20-week date due to many women discovering they were pregnant too late or the pregnancy posed a risk to the mother. Many also make the argument that the 20-week deadline force many girls to resort to unsafe ways to terminate pregnancies.
Even though the new law, if passed, will not solve all human rights violations against women in India because the amount of rape and sexual abuse against women is still very high, the law is a boost for women in India. India struggles with stopping sexual abuse, but there are many people in India are working to at least try to help the women after the abuse in the circumstances where women become pregnant and need an abortion.