The MTP Act: is it legal, and how many weeks are allowed

Read this part first

The stages below are the law, and you are entitled to know them. But how many weeks the law allows is not the same question as what is best for you. Earlier is genuinely simpler: less intervention, safer, quicker to recover from, and more of the choices still open — the medication route in particular stops being suitable early. If you have come to this page to work out how long you could leave it, the honest answer is that leaving it makes the treatment bigger, not easier.

How many weeks are allowed

The law works in three stages, not one single cut-off:

• Up to 20 weeks — the opinion of one registered doctor is enough, formed in good faith that continuing the pregnancy would carry a risk to your physical or mental health, or a risk to the child. Contraceptive failure is a recognised reason, for any woman, married or not.
• 20 to 24 weeks — the law requires the opinion of two registered doctors, and only for specific situations: survivors of sexual assault or incest, minors, a change in marital status during the pregnancy such as widowhood or divorce, women with disabilities or mental illness, a substantial risk of foetal abnormality, or a declared humanitarian emergency. Pai Hospital has three registered doctors on staff, so where that second opinion is needed it is given here, on the same visit.
• Beyond 24 weeks — only where a Medical Board finds a substantial foetal abnormality. This goes through a State Medical Board process rather than a single hospital's decision; we can guide you through what that involves.

If your life is at immediate risk at any stage of pregnancy, the law allows a doctor to act to save it without being bound by the usual limits.

A stage is not a target. Each one exists for a defined set of situations, and treatment at a later stage is a larger undertaking than treatment at an earlier one — for you most of all. Establish your dates early, and decide early.

Who is allowed to certify a termination

Only a "registered medical practitioner" as the Act defines it — a doctor registered with the state or national medical register who also holds the specific training or experience in gynaecology and obstetrics the MTP Rules require. Not every doctor qualifies to certify under the Act, which is why the certifying doctor's own registration matters alongside the hospital's licence.

Your consent, and no one else's

For an adult woman, only her own consent is needed. Guardian consent is required only for a minor, or for a woman who is unable to give consent because of the specific definition of mental illness the law uses. Husbands, parents and partners have no legal say in the decision. Being unmarried makes no difference at all to your entitlement to care.

The consent form the law requires

A termination is carried out on the consent form prescribed by the government, and that form exists only at premises licensed for this — which is also why a pharmacy may not dispense the medicines without it. The form is there for your protection. It records that the decision was yours, that it was taken with a doctor who had examined you, and that it was done somewhere licensed to do it.

Your confidentiality

Your identity is protected by law, and protected in practice by the people looking after you. Nothing about your visit is written where anyone else can see it, discussed outside the room, or shared with anyone — not your family, not your employer, not anyone who telephones asking. The staff are trained over years to be non-judgemental, and gossip is a discipline the whole team is held to rather than something we hope will not happen. That duty sits with us, not with you.

An ectopic pregnancy is a different matter altogether

An ectopic pregnancy — a pregnancy growing outside the womb — is not a termination of pregnancy. It is a separate medical condition, and it is an emergency; the questions of weeks and certification on this page do not govern it. It is sometimes discovered on the scan done before a termination, which is one of the reasons that scan is always done first. Treating it is emergency surgery to protect the woman's life. Read about ectopic pregnancy.

What this means for you, practically

If you are not sure how many weeks you are, that is the first thing to establish, because it decides which of the above applies — and because the answer is more useful the sooner you have it. Start with the overview, or go straight to what happens next: medical (pill) termination or surgical termination.

This page is for general education and is not personal medical advice. Treatment depends on your own examination and reports, so please speak to a doctor about your situation. We do not carry out or offer sex determination of any kind.