Making abortion rights more inclusive
- October 5, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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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.