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3 main reason for MTP , social, therapeutic and another one

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"abortion, induced"[MeSH Terms] AND "indications"

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The fourth ground is eugenic, and the Act also lists a fifth, humanitarian. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971 in India legalises abortion on four grounds: therapeutic, eugenic, humanitarian and social (Parikh's Textbook of Medical Jurisprudence Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, p. 453-454).
  1. Therapeutic: Continuing the pregnancy would risk the woman's life or cause grave injury to her physical or mental health. Examples:
    • heart disease with failure
    • active TB or severe diabetes
    • hypertension with cardiac or renal failure
    • toxaemia of pregnancy
    • hydatidiform mole
    • malignancy of the breast or genital tract
    • threatened insanity
  2. Eugenic: There is a substantial risk that the child would be born with serious physical or mental abnormalities and handicaps (Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine).
  3. Humanitarian: The pregnancy resulted from rape (Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine).
  4. Social: The pregnancy is the result of contraceptive failure in a married woman. The Act also allows the woman's actual or reasonably foreseeable environment to be taken into account when judging the risk to her mental health. I didn't pull the text for this ground from the library, so this wording comes from my own knowledge.
The gestational limits come from my own knowledge of the 2021 amendment, not from the textbooks I searched, so check them against the current Act:
  • Up to 20 weeks needs one registered medical practitioner.
  • 20 to 24 weeks needs two practitioners, and applies only to special categories such as rape survivors and minors.
  • Beyond 24 weeks is allowed only for substantial foetal abnormalities, as decided by a Medical Board.
A quick PubMed check of recent systematic reviews found nothing that changes this. The three results were on abortion prevalence in Iran and Africa and on abortion and ectopic pregnancy, and none concern the legal grounds.
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