For abortion married woman's forceful pregnancy can be treated as marital rape; SC

|HT|

Forceful pregnancy of a married woman can be treated as “marital rape” for the purposes of abortion, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, as it delivered a landmark ruling on women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.

“Married women may also form part of the class of rape survivors. Rape means sexual intercourse without consent, and intimate partner violence is a reality. In this case, also woman may get forcefully pregnant,” said a bench, headed by Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, holding that the term “rape’ under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act will include pregnancy due to forcible sex by husbands.

“Any pregnancy alleged to be caused by force by a pregnant woman is rape,” it said.

The bench, which also included justices AS Bopanna and JB Pardiwala, also interpreted the MTP Act to declare that even an unmarried woman will be allowed to go for abortion up to 24 weeks, on par with married women.