New Delhi: The number of recorded abortions in India, mainly in the public sector hospitals, has seen a remarkable rise over the last five years, a government reply to a Parliament question has shown.
In 2020-21, there were 5.34 lakh medical terminations of pregnancies (MTP) reported on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s Health Information Management System (HMIS), while this number rose to 8.93 lakh in 2024-25, the government informed Parliament Tuesday in response to a query by CPI(M) MP A.A.Rahim.
The rise seen during the half-a-decade period is over 67 percent and the figures also showed a yearly rise in numbers over this period. For instance, the MTPs rose to 5.93 lakh in 2021-22. It then reached 7.11 lakh in 2022-23 and 8.01 lakh in 2023-24.
HMIS compiles crucial statistics related to several health indications, as provided by the states, mainly from a network of government run primary, secondary and tertiary level healthcare facilities.
The data on MTPs showed that in 2024-25, the year for which provisional data is available, the maximum number of abortions—2.07 lakh—were reported in Maharashtra, followed by Tamil Nadu with 1.01 lakh.
A 2017 study published in The Lancet, a peer-reviewed general medical journal, estimated that the actual number of abortions—induced through medical methods of abortion (MMA) or pills or vaccum aspiration or through surgeries—was around 1.5 crore annually in India and nearly half of these were unintended pregnancies.
Eight years ago, the public sector, which is the main source of health care for rural and poor women, accounted for only one-quarter of facility-based abortion provision, in part because many public facilities do not offer abortion services.
The primary reasons for seeking MTP, experts underline, include failed contraception, congenital malformations, and socio-economic factors.
Unmet need, or rising access?
Abortions have been legal in India since the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, was enacted, but women were not given the absolute right to abort in the beginning. The decision to go forward with abortion was mainly up to the doctors, and women had a little say.
An amendment to the Act in 2021 allowed unmarried women to get abortions and extended the gestational limit in some circumstances (abortion due to contraceptive failure), but it still fell short of being a rights-based legislation.
According to the amended act, all women can abort pregnancy up to 20 weeks, with the opinion of a doctor. For others such as survivors of sexual assault or rape or incest, minors, and women with physical or mental disabilities, or in cases of foetal abnormality, the opinion of two doctors is needed for abortion—up to 24 weeks.
Abortion is also permitted for up to 24 weeks for women whose marital status changes (widowhood and divorce) during pregnancy and during disaster-like situations. Also, there is a provision for a state-level medical board determining the request for termination of a pregnancy longer than 24 weeks in cases of fetal anomalies.
Some experts pointed out that the latest figure revealed by the government response suggests that there may be a huge unmet need for family planning methods and services.
“A large number of women today are part of the workforce and do not want to have babies due to multiple reasons- yet they lack access to counseling related to contraception and long-term family planning,” said Poonam Muttreja, executive director, Population Foundation of India.
She also added that abortions are associated with huge physical, emotional and mental health risks and even a significant degree of mortality–around 8 percent.
But some underlined that the rise in recorded abortions could be a reflection of more women accessing public health facilities which is a good thing.
“This, in fact, indicates that the cost of abortions may be going down and more women from economically disadvantaged groups are accessing the MTP services,” V S Chandrashekhar, India director at Americares, a global non-profit organisation focused on health and development, told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)