Crackdown on illegal abortions in Akola

After sex-selective abortions in Beed, district officials of Akola in the state’s Vidarbha region have started cracking down on sonography centres and abortion clinics to curb the falling child sex-ratio.

After sex-selective abortions in Beed, district officials of Akola in the state’s Vidarbha region have started cracking down on sonography centres and abortion clinics to curb the falling child sex-ratio.

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Over the past week, officials have registered police complaints against five doctors and permanently suspended licences of six abortion clinics following irregularities in abortion-related formalities. According to officials, a doctor who is under the scanner reported a more than 10-fold increase in abortion cases in the past four months. The child sex-ratio in Akola dropped to 900 girls per 1,000 boys last year, from 933 girls per 1,000 boys in 2001.

“When we analysed registers of the abortion data for the last year, we found that Amrut Hospital had reported more than 70 cases of abortion per month since January. Last year, the hospital records showed only four to five abortions per month,” said Yogesh Sarpat, programme officer to implement the Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act.

Sarpat added, “This only means they were not informing the civil surgeon about all the abortion cases. The police should investigate our suspicion of sex-selective abortions.” Officials have registered a first information report for destruction of evidence against doctors running Amrut Hospital, Maa Hospital, RKT Ayurved Hospital, Lote Hospital and Talokar Hospital under various sections of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act and the Indian Penal Code.

Last month, district officials formed teams for implementation of PCPNDT Act and started inspecting sonography centres and abortions clinics following the government’s directive after a woman in Beed died, allegedly during an illegal sex-selective abortion.