THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2001
Nepal parliament votes to partially legalise abortion
KATHMANDU: Nepal's MPs have voted to partially legalise abortion in the country for the first time. The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved the 11th Amendment to the Civil Code, which allows abortion in certain cases.
The bill will have to be passed by the Upper House of Parliament, the National Assembly, and be sent to King Gyanendra for his official approval before it becomes law. It is likely that the Upper House will pass the bill and the King will approve it within two months, parliamentary officials said.
If passed, abortion, which was not previously legal in any case, would be permitted in cases of rape or incest up to 10 weeks into the pregnancy.
If the pregnancy poses any danger to the physical or mental health of the mother or if the child will be disabled, abortion would be allowed at any time during the pregnancy. A woman's husband or guardian must give consent for the abortion in all cases.
The bill makes provision for penalties for those carrying out abortion on the basis of the sex of the foetus.
Those who test a foetus to ascertain its sex for the purpose of abortion can be punished with between three and six months in prison, while abortion on the basis of the sex of the foetus carries a sentence of one year in prison. The penalties apply both to women and to doctors who carry out the tests or abortions.
"The Civil Code Amendment Bill was intended to end the practice of gender discrimination again a female child," a parliament source said.
Feminist and social campaigners welcomed the move, saying it would end illegal abortions. Around 300 to 500 women in Nepal have illegal abortions each year, according to medical statistics, though the real figure could be much higher.
According to home ministry officials, around one-quarter of women in prison in Nepal were jailed for having illegal abortions.
"Until now Nepal has remained one of the countries of the world which criminalizes women for carrying out abortions," an activist of the ruling Nepali Congress party, Sarita Bogate, said.
But an activist of the Right-to-Life group, Professor Angur Baba Joshi, said: "It is not an issue that should have been decided so easily. Rather there should have been a national referendum to decide on this."
112 MPs in the 205-member house voted for the bill and 92 voted against.
But most of those voting against the bill did not object to the abortion law, but to a controversial amendment to a property law, which was also included in the bill.
Under the present law a woman can only inherit property at the age of 35. The amendment reduces the age to 18, but leaves in place a clause that the woman must give the property to a paternal relative if she gets married.
( AFP )
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