ABORTION TIME LIMIT INCREASED TO 24 WEEKS BY UNION CABINET

NEWDELHI: The Union Cabinet on Wednesdayapprovedincreasing thelegaldeadlineforconducting a medical abortion from the current 20 to 24 weeks for “special categoriesof women”, including “vulnerablewomen”suchasdifferently abled, minors, rape survivors, and victims of incest.

TheCabinetgaveitsnodtothe Medical Termination of Pregnancy(Amendment)Bill,2020,to changetheMedicalTermination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 and is set to introduce it in the Budget session of Parliament beginning on January 31.

Theamendmentalsoproposes thattherequirementfortheopinion ofone doctor for termination of pregnancy should be enough upto20weeksofgestation,andto doctorsforterminationbetween 20 and 24 weeks of gestation.

After the Cabinet meeting, Union minister Prakash Javadekartoldreporterssaidthatthe upper limit was increased to ensure safe termination of pregnancies, and also give women reproductive rights over their bodies.

The extension will help victimsofrape,womenwithdisabilities and minors, who may not realise they are pregnant until later, he said.

Dr Nikhil Datar, who has helped as many as 120 women acrossthecountryinundergoing pregnancyterminationsafterthe 20-weekperiod,said,“Ithasbeen a long struggle. In 2008, when I filed a petition, I didn’t know if I willsucceed,butitwastheneedof thehour, forabettercause. Itisa bigdayofcelebrationforwomen who can now opt for abortion without going through the tedious law battle.”

MUMBAI: WiththeUnionministry of home affairs legally transferring the Elgar Parishad probe to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the state government is left with two options — eithertoco-operatewiththeCentral agency or to challenge the “unreasonable transfer” in the Supreme Court (SC).

The Centre had last week directed the NIA to take over the probe into the Elgar Parishad case, which was being investigated by Pune Police for suspected Maoist links. The police were investigating whether provocative speeches were made at the conclave held on December 31, 2017, which allegedly led to caste-basedviolencearoundBhima-Koregaon village the next day. Earlier, the Maharashtra governmenthadbegunareview oftheprobe, withaspecialinvestigation team being considered.

“It is true that the Centre has the power under section 6 (5) [of theNIAAct]totransfertheinvestigation to the NIA, but it is expected to have acted reasonably. We are checking if we can claim that the Centre’s act of transferring the investigation [whichwasatanadvancedstage]