According to an RTI reply which has revealed that in the past six years (2008-2014), there were as many as 1, 43,175 abortions conducted in Delhi’s government hospitals and 42 deaths were reported during abortions.
It means that every day, close to 65 abortions is being conducted in these hospitals and the figures are only escalating with each passing year.
Social activist Rajhans Bansal, raised doubts over the high numbers that has resulted in deaths of 1, 43,175 unborn children to which the Department of Health and Family Welfare revealed the figures.
According to the RTI, Delhi’s government hospitals conducted 9,504 during 2008-2009, whereas the figure was almost double in 2009-2010 to 20,696 abortions.
And in 2010-2011, the figure went up to 26,241 with five deaths in this year.
There was only a marginal rise in 2011-2012 with 27,487 abortions but the number of deaths shows a continuous increase to 15 that year.
The total soared to 30,376 in 2012-2013 and it stands at 28,869 for 2013-2014, according to the RTI.
Legally Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) is permitted for medical reasons including abnormalities in the foetus, risk to the mother’s physical and mental health and contraceptive failure.
Bansal said: “By their own admission, there have been close to 1.5 lakh abortions in government hospitals. But it is still a very high figure and there should be investigation into this. Imagine if this is what is being done legally then what must be the situation in private hospitals where nothing is documented. People can still use influence and money to get sex-selective abortions done in private hospitals.”