Mrs. Ruchi Ghanashyam is the former High Commissioner of India to the UK. With a career in Indian Foreign Service for over 38 years, she has been posted in many countries including South Africa, Ghana, before arriving in the UK. She was only the second woman High Commissioner to the UK since India’s independence and during her tenure, she witnessed a number of significant developments in the UK-India relations.
Having spent a delightful vacation in Vietnam, I was determined to devote this week’s column to that remarkable country. But then a host of other developments burst onto my consciousness, each demanding its space in the column!
In France, barely two months after being re-elected, President Emmanuel Macron lost control of the French National Assembly thanks to a strong performance by a left alliance and the far right, creating complications for this G7 member country, permanent member of the UN Security Council, and a nuclear and global power. The recent loss of the conservatives in two by polls in the UK, after their performance in the recent local elections; and the Commonwealth summit in Rwanda, the first since 2018, first in Africa since 2007, and the first hosted by a “new” Commonwealth member – Rwanda; seemed interesting subjects.
Developments at home that made headlines, included protests over a hiring scheme for the Indian armed forces and the government’s reasons for the changes; India at the BRICS summit; and PM Modi at the G7 meeting in Germany, where a plan to raise $600 billion for global infrastructure programmes in poor countries was announced.
But most of all, I was tempted to write about the proclamation by the UN General Assembly to observe 24th June as the International Day of Women in Diplomacy. Having devoted my column of 27th September 2021 to ‘Women in Diplomacy’, this week, I express my thanks to the international community for recognising the need and role of women in diplomacy.
Amongst all the important developments of the last few days, there are two landmark events in the USA that deserve attention this week. On 25th June, President Biden signed into law the first major federal gun safety legislation passed in decades, marking a significant bipartisan breakthrough on one of the most contentious policy issues in the country. The legislation came in the aftermath of recent mass shootings at an elementary school in Texas, and a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighbourhood in Buffalo, New York. Considering that in most countries, one wouldn’t know where to go to buy a gun, it is amazing that in the USA, young children seem to get hold of sophisticated weapons as easily as candy! This is, thus, a long-awaited landmark decision.
As the US legislature moved in a positive direction, the US Supreme Court (USSC) moved backwards by several decades on June 24 2022, by overturning the landmark ruling of the USSC in Roe v. Wade, which had established the constitutional right to abortion, permitting abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy in the United States since 1973. Ruling in a Mississippi case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the USSC held "the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion" and that "the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives". Almost half the states in the US are expected to outlaw or severely restrict abortion because of this decision. Bans have already taken effect in multiple US states since the SC ruling was issued.
The USSC in Roe v. Wade upheld a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion. The case was brought by Norma McCorvey—known by the legal pseudonym "Jane Roe"— who wanted an abortion of her third pregnancy in 1969. She lived in Texas, where abortion was only allowed to save the mother's life. Her attorneys, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, filed a lawsuit on her behalf in U.S. federal court against her local district attorney, Henry Wade. A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in her favor and declared the relevant Texas abortion statutes unconstitutional. On January 22, 1973, the USSC in a 7–2 decision upheld the fundamental "right to privacy", protecting a pregnant woman's (non-absolute) right to an abortion. The ruling fueled a relentless debate in the US about legality of abortion and who should decide it. Moral and religious considerations have been the driving force for the “pro-life” lobby, anti-abortion politicians and activists who have sought for decades to overrule the decision.
The recent USSC ruling goes against a global tide that has seen many nations liberalize abortion laws in recent years. In its own neighbourhood, Mexico's Supreme Court unanimously ruled last year that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional. Canada is one of the few countries which allows abortion at any point during pregnancy. Most European Union nations -- including those in the G7 - allow abortion with gestation limits.
In India, abortion has been legal under various circumstances for the last 50 years after the introduction of Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act in 1971. India’s Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani, (Indian Express, June 28) ‘West steps back, India shows way’, writes that “Under the aegis of the Act, abortions may be performed up to 24 gestational weeks on grounds of risk to the mother’s life, mental anguish, rape, incest, contraception failure or the diagnosis of foetal abnormalities. The Act navigates the 20 weeks challenge posed by the MTP Act, 1971 and is a nod to advances in the field of health and reproductive science. It is a liberal achievement over countries where abortions are disallowed since conception, even in the most traumatising of circumstances of sexual abuse or incest.” Abortion costs are covered under Ayushmann Bharat, in all government hospitals, central government health scheme and state government insurance.
In 2012, the debate on abortions came into global prominence when Savita Halappanavar, an Indian origin dentist living in Ireland died from sepsis after her request for an abortion was denied on legal grounds. The nationwide outcry over her death led to the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 that was signed into law on 20 December 2018.
The regressive decision of the USSC is a major blow to women’s reproductive health and reproductive rights. The decision will strengthen regressive forces all over the world. Within the US, the Democrats could enact a federal law to undo the damage, but they would need a Senate majority to do so! What would be the guarantee that a future Republican majority in both houses would not bring in a federal legislation against abortion? It is tragic that women’s rights have been dealt a serious blow in the liberal ‘Mecca’ of the world. As the US fights to keep its global leadership in the face of a rising China, the USSC has dealt a severe blow to the US leadership of the liberal world.
