We just had a pregnancy scare and was reading upon the legality of abortion in India and we are finding conflicting information, few places it says it's legal within 20 weeks but few places it says for unmarried women it's only legal if there's a health risk.

What is the actual ground reality.

What option does a healthy unmarried adult women has if she wants to go with abortion within 20 weeks time?

Following is the sections we found as part of MTP Act

"Abortion is permitted in India only on certain grounds, i.e. only if a particular reason exists. If you fall within any of these grounds, you can seek an abortion.

For married women (Section 3, MTP Act):

Failure of a contraceptive device: Married women do not need to give any explanation or reasons for seeking an abortion, you can always say it was a failure of a contraceptive device, and that the pregnancy was unplanned/unwanted. You can also ask for abortion on the grounds given below (for unmarried women), though you don’t need to.

For unmarried women (Section 3, MTP Act):

Continuation of the pregnancy would cause risk to the life of the pregnant woman – For example, in cases where there are chances that the mother will not survive.

Continuation of the pregnancy is likely to cause injury to the woman’s physical or mental health – For example, if any health complications arise. This is a very subjective ground, open to explanation, and will mostly depend on whether your doctor agrees on this or not. Regular medical issues arising out of pregnancy, like diabetes, will not be considered here.

There is a substantial risk that if the child is born, it will suffer from mental or physical abnormalities or be seriously handicapped – For example, in cases where the foetus does not develop properly, and there are very few chances it will survive after birth, or it will be so handicapped that it will not have a comfortable life." Ref: https://pinklegal.in/topics/child-related/abortion.html