Abstract

In its landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India, granted equal rights to bodily autonomy to unmarried women on par with married women in the case of X vs. The Principal Secretary Health, on 29th of September 2022. The judgment is highly applauded by the women rights activists since it upholds the ‘reproductive autonomy’ of women. Interestingly, this significant development in the Indian abortion laws happened soon after the US Supreme Court took a shocking regressive step of depriving the American women of their constitutional right to abortion, by overruling Roe vs. Wade, (1973). This historic ruling influenced the reproductive rights of women everywhere for almost half a century. These two directly opposing decisions, brought the perpetually debated ‘the right to abortion’ to the headlines once again. This article intends to analyze the impact of the historic judicial trends on the abortion rights of women as well as on the families and the society. At the outset, it presents some important phases in abortion regulation, and the development of the right to abortion in India, and USA. It also includes a discussion on the development of ‘right to privacy’. The paper ends with some concluding remarks and suggestions.

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