Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP):
Intentional or voluntary termination of pregnancy before the foetus becomes viable is known as Medical Termination of pregnancy or Induced abortion.

Incidence: MTP is one of the most widely used measure of birth control in the world. Nearly, 45 to 50 million induced abortions are done every year. This accounts for about 1/5th of the total number of conceived pregnancies in a year.

Period of Safe time for MTP: Abortion is safe during first trimester of pregnancy (i.e., up to 12 weeks of pregnancy). Induced abortion is riskier in 2nd trimester of pregnancy because foetus becomes intimately associated with the maternal tissue. Medical termination of pregnancy is done to avoid birth of unwanted child concieved due to:

• Casual unprotected intercourse.
• Pregnancy due to rape cases.
• Failure of contraceptive during intercourse.
• In such cases where continuation of pregnancy may pose threat to the foetus, mother or both.

Indian government legalised MTP by an act (amendment). The medical termination of pregnancy Act, 1971 to prevent unnatural maternal deaths due to unsafe abortions by untrained persons (about 9% of total meternal deaths. MTP is usually performed after the testing the sex of the foetus by amniocentesis or sonography. It leads a large scale female focticide and complications. To prevent this malpractice of female foeticide, government enacted a law, Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and prevention of misuse) Act, 1994, with amendments in 2003. It prohibits prenatal sex determination. Violation or contravention of this act is punishable with imprisonment of 5 years and a fine of 50.000 to 1.00.000 Rs. along with cancellation of registration.