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Author would like to start this paper with the definition of key words/ key concepts:[1] Abortion & Ethics An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of an embryo or foetus from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy (which is usually termed miscarriages) or can be induced. In this paper the term denotes for the induced type. Ethics refers to “moral philosophy” or the study of values and the analysis of right and wrong. The ethical debate over abortion usually surrounds the issues of whether a foetus has rights, in particular a right to life, and whether the pregnant women’s rights over her own body justify abortion even if the foetus has a right to life. For many, there is a strong association between religion and abortion ethics. Foetus[2]: An unborn or unhatched offspring of an animal, in particular, an unborn more than eight weeks after conception. Pro-life & Pro-Choice[3]: Pro-life is a term adopted by those who oppose abortion. Pro-life individuals acknowledge an embryo or foetus as a life developing within a pregnant woman. Many pro-life individuals claim their stance as a moral or religious one and view abortions as murderous acts. Pro-choice is a term adopted by supporters of legal abortion, inferring that a woman should have the right to choose abortion, carry a pregnancy to term, and make other choices regarding their reproductive health: There are approximately 42 million abortions per year worldwide and 95% of abortions are done as birth control, 1% are done because of rape/incest, 1% because of foetal abnormalities, and 3% due to the mother’s health problems[4]. The proportion of abortions that takes place in the developing and the developed world in 2008 was 86% and 14% respectively. The abortion rate (the number of abortions per 1,000 women of child bearing age (i.e., aged 15-44 years) in 2008 for the world was 28, for the developing countries 29 and for the developed countries it was 24.[5] In 2008, India saw 6.41 lakh abortions across 12,510 institutions, approved to carry out MTP[6].

Kate Greasley and Christopher Kaczor⁷ (2018) have given views in favour and against abortion respectively. In the ensuing dialogue, they engage with each other’s arguments and each respond to criticism fielded by the other. Their conversational argument explores such fundamental questions as: What gives a person the right to life? Is abortion bad for women? What is the difference between abortion and infanticide ? Dozier JL, Hennink M, Mosley E, Narasimhan S, Pringle J, Clarke L, et al.⁸ (2020) have explored Protestant religious leader’s attitude towards abortion and their strategies for pastoral care in Georgia, USA. The study suggests that the religious leaders hold diverse attitudes and beliefs about abortion. They fell on a spectrum from pro-life to pro-choice. However, most respondents expressed attitudes in the middle of this spectrum and described more nuanced, complex and sometimes contradictory views. Munson⁹ (2018) has given a balanced, clear-eyed overview of abortion debate, including the perspectives of both the pro-life and pro-choice movements. It covers the history of the debate from colonial times to the present, the mobilization of mass movements around the issue and the way it is understood by ordinary Americans. Judith Jarvis Thomson¹⁰ (1971) has argued that the abortion procedure is morally permissible even if it is assumed that a foetus is a person with a right to live.

We can’t reach any final answer to these ethical questions unless and until we consider the arguments given by Pro-life and Pro-choice theorists¹¹, scientific evidences. Court verdicts etc.

‘Pro-life’ theorists are vehemently against the act of abortion. Their arguments are:

 1. Since life begins at conception, abortion is akin to murder as it is the act of taking human life. Abortion is in direct defiance of the commonly accepted idea of the sanctity of human life.

2. No civilized society permits one human to intentionally harm or take the life of another human without punishment, and abortion is no different.

3. Adoption is a viable alternative to abortion and accomplishes the same result. And with 1.5 million American families wanting to adopt a child, there is no such thing as an unwanted child.

4. An adoption can result in medical complications later in life: the risk of ectopic pregnancies   doubles, and the chance of a miscarriage and pelvic inflammation disease also increases.

 5. In the instance of rape and incest, proper medical care can ensure that a woman will not get pregnant. Abortion punishes the unborn child who committed no crime, instead, it is the perpetrator who should be punished.

6. Abortion should not be used as another form of contraception.

7. For women who demand complete control of their body, control should include preventing the risk of unwanted pregnancy through the responsible use of contraception.

8. Many Americans who pay taxes are opposed to abortion, therefore it’s morally wrong to use tax dollars to fund abortion.

9. Those who choose abortions are often minors of young women with insufficient life experience to understand fully what they are doing Many have lifelong regrets afterwards.

10. Abortion frequently causes intense psychological pain and stress.

 On the other hand, the Pro-choice’ theorists favour abortion on the basis of following arguments:

1. Nearly all abortions take place in the first trimester, when a foetus cannot exist independent of the mother. As it is attached by the placenta and umbilical cord, its health is dependent on her health, and cannot be regarded as a separate entity as it cannot exist outside her womb.

2. The concept of personhood is different from the concept of human life. Human life occurs at conception, but fertilized eggs used for in vitro fertilization are also human lives and those not implanted are routinely thrown away. Is this murder, and if not, then how is abortion murder?

3. Adoption is not an alternative to abortion, because it remains the women’s choice whether or not to give her child up for adoption. Statistics show that very few women who give birth choose to give up their babies-less than 3% of white unmarried women and less than 2% of black unmarried women.

4. Abortion is a safe medical procedure. The vast majority of women-88%- who have an abortion do so in their first trimester. Medical abortions have less than 0.5% risk of serious complications and do not affect a woman’s health or future ability to become pregnant or give birth

5. Abortion provides a safe escape to the victim of rape or incest where women have no choice in their pregnancies and at the same time ignorance and social taboos forbid them from making it public within a safe trimester period entailing scope of morning after pills etc. 

6. Abortion is not used as a form of contraception. Pregnancy can occur even with responsible contraceptive use. Only 8% of women who have abortion do not use any form of birth control, and that is due to more to individual carelessness than to the availability of abortion.

7. The ability of a woman to have control of her body is critical to civil rights. Take away her reproductive choice and you step onto a slippery slope. If the government can force a woman to continue a pregnancy, what about forcing a woman to use contraception or undergo sterilization?

8. Taxpayer dollars are used to enable poor women to access the same medical services as rich women, and adoption is one of these services. Funding abortion is no different from funding a war in the Mideast. For those who are opposed, the place to express outrage is in the voting booth.

9. Teenagers who become mothers have grim prospects for the future. They are much more likely to leave of school, receive inadequate parental care, rely on public assistance to raise a child; develop health problems; or end up divorced.

10. Like any other difficult situation, abortion creates stress. Yet the American Psychological Association found that stress was greatest prior to an abortion, and that there was no evidence of post-abortion syndrome.

Despite all the mind-boggling exercises, the ethics of abortion still remains to build a consensus approach among academicians (including feminists), judicial experts and courts of the land. On screening various court verdicts on the issue in different parts of the country the ambiguity intensifies. Some landmark court verdicts on the permissibility of abortion may be referred to ready reference:                

In Ashaben vs. State of Gujarat case (2015), the Gujarat high court declined the plea of a gang-rape victim (23-year-old married woman having two children) to allow her to terminate her 28 weeks pregnancy. The court asked the petitioner to bravely go ahead with the pregnancy and when the time comes deliver the child. Surprisingly, abortion is permitted under the law, but also, what the court calls the foetus right. The justice has considered two things in this judgement. One is the foetus a human being with a fundamental right to life? Ans two, does a woman have the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion? He quotes a 1920 textbook Modi on Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology to state that some points of time between 18 to 20 weeks, a woman is said to be quick with the child, denoting the first perception of quickening or the foetal movement. This term arises from the old notion that a foetus becomes endowed with her with life and secure an identity apart from the mother when the movements are felt by the mother, he adds. He also cited a German court decision in 1975 which proposed that human life exists in embryo from the 14^th day of the conception, and that it is the duty of the state to protect and promote the life of the foetus and defend it from unlawful interference by other persons. Experts question whether judge should have considered weather a foetus is a human being with the fundamental right to life.

In Suchita Srivastava and another vs Chandigarh Administration case (2009), the Supreme Court held the women’s consent is crucial in decision to undergo an abortion. This was the case in which the woman was mentally retarded and was staying in an orphanage administered by Chandigarh Administration. She was raped and was 6-10 weeks pregnant. The medical board had advised an abortion.

There was a case of 26 weeks pregnancy termination before the  Bombay High Court where the application preferred by Nikita Mehta was dismissed posing reliance on the expert medical opinion that the birth of child would not involve any serious handicap. However, in several countries including U.K. there is no gestational age limit set for abortion in the case of foetal abnormalities.

The Supreme court had allowed 14-year rape victim to abort 23-week-old pregnancy, if it posed a great risk to her life, overturning Gujarat high court decision (of July 24,2015). Justice of Gujarat High court had said that whatever be the circumstances in which the child was conceived, whatever the trauma of the young mother, the fact remains that the child is also not to blame for being conceived.

Moreover, different specialized branches of science also differ on the point as when life actually begins. For example, according to Embryology, beginning of life at gastrulation occurs about 14 days after fertilization. Neurology says that beginning of life can be defined as the start of recognizable Electroencephalography (EEG) pattern from the foetus. This is generally 24-26 weeks after conception. Ecology says that the beginning of life is defined as when the foetus can sustain itself outside the mother’ womb. This is roughly at 25-weeks etc.

 On perusal of different theoretical and juridical strands, no clear voice emerges about the desirability/ undesirability of abortion in various contexts. Everyone seems to push the ball in other’s court for final decision. As a matter of fact, the issue involving ethics vis-a-vis the right of foetus and mother remains undecided and the foetus suffers most as a corollary. Finally, the author concurs with the opinion of great Tamil saint Thiruvalluvar that “The touch of children is the delight of the body, the delight of the ear is the hearing of their speech”. A mother has got a natural duty to provide the best possible to her offspring. However, situation may arise where she indulges in activities, which injuriously affect the foetus. It may be due to ignorance, carelessness or acts done wilfully. Abortion is an issue to be left to the decision of the mother. However, taking viability of a legal standard, necessary protection should be provided to the unborn. It is also beneficial to the mother, where the state or voluntary organizations are ready to take care of the unborn. There is no meaning in conferring a right to the mother to destroy the foetus. Her right is limited to have a termination of pregnancy. It is also said that delivering 20 million babies annually would be a greater strain on the nation's medical services and economic resources than, say, performing one to five million abortions a year.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org 2. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 3. Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, Volume 1, Edited by Jodi O' Brien, Sage, California, 2009, Page-3 4.Centre for Disease control and prevention & The Guttmacher Institute, 2008 5. Sedgh G et al., Induced abortion: incidence and trends from 1995 to 2008, Lancet, 2012 6. Family Welfare statistics in India, Union Health Ministry, 2008 7. Kate Greasley and Christopher Kaczor; Abortion Rights: For and Against; Cambridge University Press, U.K.; 2018 8. Dozier JL, Hennink M, Mosley E, Narasimhan S, Pringle J, Clarke L, et al. (2020); Abortion attitudes, religious and moral belief, and pastoral care among Protestant religious leaders in Georgia; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235971, July 17,2020 9. Ziad Munson; Abortion Politics; Wiley;2018 10. Judith Jarvis Thomson; A Defence of Abortion; Philosophy & Public Affairs; Vol.1, No.1.; pp 47-66; Autumn;1971 11. http://womensissues.about.com