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Maharashtra PAC recommends making sex-determination compulsory
The Maharashtra Public Accounts Committee, in its report tabled before the Legislative Assembly, has recommended that sex-determination be made compulsory in cases of all pregnancies. This recommendation was made in view of India’s low child sex ratio, and is premised in the belief that monitoring of pregnancies will make sex-selective abortions difficult. The committee also recommended that parents be brought within the purview of the PCPNDT Act.
The PCPNDT Act regulates the use of medical technology, not women’s right to medically terminate a pregnancy, as this report proposes to do. As such, the PAC’s recommendation is inconsistent with women’s legally protected reproductive rights under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, as well as the social realities that inform decisions related to pregnancy and abortion.