MEDICAL TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY OR INDUCED ABORTION

Intentional or voluntary termination of pregnancy is called INDUCED ABORTION or Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP). Nearly 45-50 million MTPs are performed in a year all over the world which accounts to 1/5^th of the total number of conceived pregnancy in a year. MTP has a significant role in decreasing population though it is not meant for that purpose. Whether to accept/legalise MTP or not is being debated upon in many countries due to emotional, ethical, religious and social issues involved in it. MTP is necessary to get rid of unwanted pregnancy either due to casual unprotected intercourse or failure of the contraceptives used during sex or rapes. MTPs are also essential in certain cases where continuation of pregnancy could be harmful or even fatal either to the mother or to the foetus or both. MTPS are relatively safe during first trimester i.e. upto 12 weeks of pregnancy. Second trimester abortions are much more risky. Nowadays a days a trend is observed that majority of the MTPs are performed illegally by unqualified quacks which are not only unsafe but could be fatal too. Another dangerous trend is the misuse of amniocentesis to determine the sex of the foetus. Frequently, if the foetus is found to be female, it is followed by MTP which is totally against what is legal. Such practices should be avoided because these are dangerous both for the young mother and foetus (Unborn baby). Effective counselling on the need to avoid unprotected sex and the risk factors involved in illegal abortions as well as providing more health care facilities could reverse the mentioned unhealthy trends which are very dangerous for health and society.

Government of India legalised MTP in 1971 by passing an act, MEDICAL TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY ACT 1971 with some strict conditions to avoid its misuse. It is manly meant for preventing unnatural maternal deaths due to unsafe abortions (8.9% of total maternal deaths). The act has been amended in 2002. Under this act, termination of pregnancy or abortion can be done upto 20 weeks, if the pregnancy is likely to produce a congentially malformed child or is a result of rape and contraceptives failure or is likely to harm the mother. The drug misoprostol (prostaglandin) along with mifepristone (antiprogesterone) is a very effective combination for induced abortion. Vacuum aspiration and surgical procedures are adopted thereafter. But it has resulted in large scale female foeticide by determining the sex of unborn baby and complications due to unsafe abortions in the hands of untrained persons. To prevent such incidents, the Government of India has enacted a law, PRE-NATAL DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUE (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) ACT 1994 with amendments in 2003. It prohibits preconception and prenatal sex determination.