More than 50 foetus are aborted daily in government hospitals of Delhi

Reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that the number of Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) (or abortion in common parlance) in Delhi is fairly high. As per the information, there were 88,188 abortions in the government hospitals of Delhi over the past 4 years which translates into more than 50 abortions daily. The figures show a drastic variation over the years raising a doubt about the quality of data. It has also been argued that as more than 80% of medical abortions take place in private nursing homes, the figures are only partial. The year-wise number of abortions in the government hospitals is as under:

·         2008-09 : 40,238

·         2009-10 : 13, 850

·         2010-11 : 15,157

·         2011-12 : nearly 19,000

MTP is legal and is allowed on medical grounds, including abnormalities in the foetus. The common causes of MTP are:

·         contraceptive failure

·         unprotected intercourse leading to unplanned pregnancy

·         risk to the mother's physical and mental health.

·         family completed already or the desire to limit family size

·         the desire to space pregnancies

·         Sex selective abortion cannot be ruled out completely

The RTI application was filed by Rajhans Bansal who received the reply only after the intervention of the Central Information Commission. A high number of MTP point to the lack of awareness / use of other family planning measures by the population.