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Paper short abstract

Drawing on current fieldwork in India the paper explores how legal activists creatively promote litigation strategies to do with Medical Termination of Pregnancies (MTP), 'routinising' access to abortion, de-stigmatising discrimination amongst judges and challenging juridical governance.

Paper long abstract

India has in the past few years had a slew of landmark judgements which have expanded the scope of the Medical Termination of the Pregnancy Act (1971) widening the ambit of reproductive rights, for example, to include the expansion of the window of termination to 24 weeks and the right to reproductive autonomy of women with disabilities. The paper explores the micro-legal processes at work, drawing on current fieldwork on the strategies of legal aid activists, lawyers and judges to throw light on the dynamic interpretation of the law by judges and activists expanding access and contributing to the de-stigmatisation of abortion in the country. In doing so we critically examine the power and challenges involved in emerging forms of juridical reproductive governance.