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Earlier this week, India’s apex court passed judgement on Rule 3B of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003, placing emphasis on the bodily autonomy of women in the country.

Hearing a plea by an unmarried woman who wanted to terminate her pregnancy at 23 weeks, the top court pronounced a landmark judgement. Here are some important points from the ruling.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench expanded abortion rights to include unmarried women, saying that the distinction between married and unmarried women was “artificial and unsustainable”

The Court in its ruling made a distinction on the legal definition of ‘woman’ w.r.t the MTP Rules, establishing that the term is not limited to cisgender women or people who were assigned female at birth.

Long shunned by courts, marital rape was recognised in the judgement, with the bench emphasising that married women may also be survivors of assault or rape at the hands of their spouse.

The Supreme Court also placed importance on the rights of unmarried women, saying that a woman can become pregnant by choice, irrespective of marital status, as well as terminate the foetus.

In addition, the Court also observed that women seeking legal abortions will not be required to obtain familial consent, only a professional opinion.

As it stands, terminating a pregnancy is legal for all pregnancies up to 20 weeks; for pregnancies between 20-24 weeks, termination is subject to the circumstances, for instance in cases of rape or incest.

However, the Supreme Court bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, A S Bopanna, and J B Pardiwala also made it clear that these caveats and observations were only in connection with the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003