Making abortion rights more inclusive

Subject :Human Rights

Context :Supreme Court says abortion rights not limited to ‘cis-gender women’.

Concept :

The Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional to distinguish between married and unmarried women while allowing abortion when the foetus is between 20-24 weeks.
Going a step further, the court said the term ‘woman’ in the judgment included persons other than cisgender women.
The SC verdict is a step in the direction of officially recognising that it is not just cisgender women who can give birth – transgender and genderqueer people also give birth.

What is cisgender?

The term cisgender is used to define people whose gender identity and expression match the identity assigned to them at birth.
When a child is born, it is assigned a gender identity based on its physical characteristics.
Many believe that gender is a social construct, and growing up, the child may or may not confirm to the birth identity.
For transgender people, their sense of gender identity does not match the one assigned to them at birth.
Thus, a cisgender woman is a person who was assigned female at birth and continues to identify as a woman.
On the other hand, a child assigned female at birth can feel it identifies more authentically as a man as it grows up.