Supreme Court Allows Unmarried Woman to End Pregnancy, Says Abortion Law Does Not Distinguish Married and Unmarried Women

The petitioner, whom the Court calls X, learnt in June 2022 that she was pregnant after a consensual relationship that later failed; a scan on 5 July 2022 showed a pregnancy of twenty-two weeks, and without a source of livelihood she could not raise a child (para 4). She asked the Delhi High Court to permit termination and to include unmarried women in Rule 3B, which lists categories of women eligible for termination between twenty and twenty-four weeks (paras 4-5, 11). The High Court refused interim relief, holding her case not covered by Rule 3B (paras 6, 12).

Prima facie, the High Court took an unduly restrictive view of Rule 3B(c): 'change of marital status' must be read purposively, and 'widowhood and divorce' are not exhaustive (para 14). By the 2021 amendment Parliament replaced 'husband' with 'partner' in Explanation 1 to Section 3, showing an intent to include unmarried and single women (paras 15-16, 18). The statute recognises a woman's reproductive choice, bodily integrity and autonomy without distinguishing married from unmarried women, in line with Article 21 (para 16). There is a gap in the law, since Rule 3B covers widows, divorcees, minors and survivors of rape but not unmarried women, and no basis exists to deny them the same choice (para 18). Relying on Suchita Srivastava, Puttaswamy and S. Khushboo, the Court held that denying an unmarried woman a safe abortion violates her autonomy, the distinction has no nexus with the law's object, and the delay in the courts cannot prejudice her (paras 19-21).