Intentional or voluntary termination of pregnancy before full term is called medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) or induced abortion. About 1/5th of the total number of conceived pregnancies in a year are aborted. 45- 50 million MTPs are carried out each year across the world. MTP was legalized in India in 1971 with some strict conditions to avoid its misuse. Unwanted pregnancies due to casual unprotected intercourse, due to failure of the contraceptive used during coitus or rapes, cases where continuation of the pregnancy could be harmful or even fatal either to the mother or to the foetus or both could be terminated safely during the first trimester / 12 weeks of pregnancy.
MTPs performed illegally by unqualified quacks are not only unsafe but could be fatal to mother. Misuse of amniocentesis to determine the sex of the unborn child followed by MTP of female child illegal..