Reproduction, Abortion and Women's Health

The question of womens health seems to be cast in adjunct to reproduction at least as far as the Indian state is concerned. For the feminist movements in the city of Bombay womens health are inextricably connected with issues around sexuality reproduction and the social and legal control of these. In fact it has been stated in an internal critique that the need of feminists to discuss sexuality seems to have emerged from debates around fertility and fertility control. One of the victories of the health and the feminist movements in Bombay was the campaign around selective sex determination using the medical techniques of amniocentesis and ultra sound. The campaign began in 1982 leading to a law banning these techniques in 1988 making Maharashtra the first state in the country to adopt such a law. Other states followed suit and in 1992 a law was passed at the national level similar in spirit to the Bombay law. In this paper I will explore some issues related to the campaign in Bombay and the 1988 law. Connected closely to it in my opinion are the national family planning programme the feminist critique of the methods and the ideology of the programme legal and moral dilemmas connected with abortion and its implied and stated links with sex determination. (authors)