What does it take for a woman to get a safe abortion in India? When does the court intervene, and in whose favour? Which case of abortion is considered worthy of being granted by Medical Boards?
In this audio documentary, Menaka Rao, an award-winning health journalist, examines abortion through the lenses of health, law and disability. Using research on court procedures and interviews with specialists and stakeholders, including women who have had or wanted an abortion, Menaka lays out the socio-legal landscape of a woman’s need for a safe abortion. Judicial interventions and exceptions in abortion cases can give us insight on how the state perceives motherhood, sexuality, disability and women’s health, and how a pregnant woman often needs to become a ‘victim’ in the eyes of law in order to exercise her right over her own body.
Nirantar Radio’s ‘Audio Documentaries’ are sound-and-narrative explorations voiced from the field. These nonfiction narratives are held in a feminist recitation that moves through the personal, the collective and the political. What other voices would you like recorded? Tell us at [email protected].
This fieldwork and research for this podcast is supported by The Pulitzer Center.
Check out The Third Eye’s Pleasure and Danger edition for more narratives of sexuality from the feminist lens.
Research, interviews, script and narration by Menaka Rao
Produced and edited by Madhuri Adwani
Translated into Hindi by Suman Parmar
Illustration by Ashni Singh
