 bill  no  xxxv of  2008 the medical termination of pregnancy (amendment) bill, 2008 a billfurther to  amend the medical termination of pregnancy act, 1971be it enacted by parliament in the fifty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:—short title and commencementact, 2008 statement of objects and reasonsthe medical termination of pregnancy act, 1971, legalised termination of pregnancy on various socio-medical grounds this act aimed at eliminating abortion, by untrained persons and in unhygienic conditions, thus reducing maternal morbidity and mortalityin july 2008 the case of a 31 year old mother, torn between trauma and ethics, has highlighted  the shortcoming in this act in its present form the young mother, when told in the twenty fourth week of her pregnancy, that her foetus had congenital heart blockage along with transposition of the great vessels and would require a pacemaker to pull through life, had wanted to terminate her pregnancy her appeal was rejected by the high court on the plea that the mtp act does not allow termination of pregnancy after twenty weeks, although both the pediatricians and the cardiologists had suggested termination of pregnancytoday medical advancement allows detection of congenital health problems which generally surface after 22-24 weeks of pregnancy in unborn  children it should, therefore, be the right of the parents, who alone have to ultimately look after the child born with incurable congenital defects, to decide whether to abort the foetus or not based on sound medical advicethe bill seeks to achieve the  objectsprakash  javadekar annexure extracts from the medical termination of pregnancy act, 1971        3 when pregnancies may be terminated by registered medical practitioners—(1)  notwithstanding anything contained in the indian panel code (45 of 1860), a registered medical practitioner shall not be guilty of any offence under that code or under any other law for the time being in force, if any pregnancy is terminated by him in accordance with the provisions of this act(2) subject to the provisions of sub-section (4), a pregnancy may be terminated by a registered medical practitioner,—(a) where the length of the pregnancy does not exceed twelve weeks if such medical practitioner is, or(b) where the length of the pregnancy exceeds twelve weeks but does not exceed twenty weeks, if not less than two registered medical practitioner are, of opinion, formed in good faith, that— (i) the continuance of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or of grave injury to her physical or mental health; or(ii) there is a substantial risk that if the child were born, it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities to be seriously handicapped explanation 1 - where any pregnancy is alleged by the pregnant woman to have been caused by rape, the anguish caused by such pregnancy shall be presumed to constitute a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant womanexplanation 2 - where any pregnancy occurs as a result of failure of any device or method used by any married woman or her husband for the purpose of limiting the number of children, the anguish caused by such unwanted pregnancy may be resumed to constitute a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman(3) in determining whether the continuance of a pregnancy would involve such risk of injury to the health as is mentioned in sub-section (2), account may be taken of the pregnant women's actual or reasonable foreseeable environment(4) (a) no pregnancy of a woman, who has not attained the age of eighteen years, or, who, having attained the age of eighteen years, is a lunatic, shall be terminated except with the consent in writing of her guardian(b) save as otherwise provided in clause (a), no pregnancy shall be terminated except with the consent of the pregnant woman        rajya  sabha———— a billfurther to amend the medical termination of pregnancy act, 1971————(shri prakash javadekar, mp)gmgipmrnd—662rs(s-5)—13-02-2009