Protecting women’s reproductive rights

The Modi government has given its nod to bring in legislation regulating IVF clinics in the country. This is the third in the series of legislations that protect reproductive rights of Indian women. The government earlier brought bills on surrogacy and abortion. The Assisted Reproductive Regulation Bill 2020 seeks to streamline the burgeoning fertility industry that has grown exponentially, without any control. The legislation will put in place guidelines for carrying In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) procedures. One of the provisions of the new bill is to restrict the age limit to 50.

According to estimates, India has a USD 700 million IVF industry which is likely to grow to USD1.4 billion by 2026 as the country has emerged as a cheap destination for infertility treatment. The number of infertile couples in India alone is estimated to be 27 million.

A cabinet note on the new legislation said, “India has become one of the major centres of this global fertility industry, with reproductive medical tourism becoming a significant activity. Clinics in India offer nearly all the ART services - gamete donation, intra-uterine insemination, IVF, ICSI, PGD and gestational surrogacy. However, in spite of so much activity in India, there is yet no standardisation of protocols and reporting is still very inadequate.”

Calling it an “historic Bill”, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said the legislation aimed for the welfare of women in the country as it proposes law to establish a national registry.

“A national board and the state board will be set up to help implement the legal framework. A central database of clinics and banks will also be established,” Irani said, adding those indulging in embryo sale and trafficking can be fined and even put behind bars as per the provisions of the bill.

One of the main steps towards standardisation will be setting up of a national registry and a body to keep a hawk eye on all the IVF clinics and procedures offered by them. The clinics will now have to register with the national and provincial panels. The aim is to prevent malpractices, exploitation and regulating the high cost of treatment. The effort will be on ensuring that the technology reaches all sections of the society and not just the affluent class.

Since the risks increase with age, the legislation bars women above 50 from undergoing the procedure. As the practice is unregulated at the moment, there have been instances of women getting pregnant at the age of 70. The bill also addresses the issue of gender discrimination as sex determination is banned even for test tube babies. The sale of human embryos will also be banned.

The guidelines will be implemented through a national body that will form these new rules and make sure the violators are punished. The clinics will have to follow minimum requirements of physical set up, laboratory, diagnostic equipment and strength of doctors and staff.

Apart from the ART bill, the legislation on regulating surrogacy, after being discussed by the select committee of Parliament, has been placed before the Upper House. It proposes setting up of a national board to regulate the practice of surrogacy. It seeks to ban commercial surrogacy including sale and purchase of human embryos and gametes, known as reproductive cells that unite during fertilization to form a new cell called a zygote.

Ethical surrogacy will be allowed for Indian married couples and single women (only divorcees and widows) on certain specified conditions. Surrogacy will be banned for foreigners but will be allowed for Indian-origin married couples. The bill also safeguards potential exploitation of surrogate mothers and children born through surrogacy. India was fast becoming nerve centre of surrogacy but the bill allows ethical altruistic surrogacy to the intending infertile Indian married couple between the age of 23-50 years and 26-55 years for females and males. It allows women to act as a surrogate mother only once. The surrogate mother should be a close relative of the couple and should be married having a child of her own between the age of 25-35 years.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill, also approved by the cabinet, will ensure safe abortions to those who need to terminate pregnancy in certain conditions.

The move became necessary because of large number of petitions seeking permission for abortion at gestational age beyond the permissible limit. It was felt that the present limit was coming in the way of abortion in the case of foetal abnormalities or pregnancies due to sexual violence.