NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a woman’s lack of marital status could not deny her the choice to abort a pregnancy at any time up to 24 weeks, a decision hailed by women’s rights activists.

The right to abortion has proved contentious globally afterthe U.S. Supreme Court overturned in June its landmark decisionin Roe v. Wade that had legalised the procedure in the UnitedStates.

“Even an unmarried woman can undergo abortion up to 24 weekson par with married women,” said Justice D.Y. Chandrachud ofIndia’s Supreme Court, holding that lack of marital status couldnot deprive a woman of the right.

A law dating from 1971, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy(MTP) Act, had limited the procedure to married women,divorcees, widows, minors, “disabled and mentally ill women” andsurvivors of sexual assault or rape.

Thursday’s decision came in response to a petition by awoman who said her pregnancy resulted from a consensualrelationship but she had sought abortion when it failed.

The ruling is a milestone for the rights of Indian women,activists said.

“A huge step forward,” lawmaker Mahua Moitra said onTwitter.

The court added that sexual assault by husbands can beclassified as marital rape under the MTP law. Indian law doesnot consider marital rape an offence, though efforts are beingmade to change this.

“In an era that includes Dobbs vs Jackson, and makesdistinctions between the marital status of women who are raped -this excellent judgment on abortion under the MTP Act hits itout of the park,” Karuna Nundy, an advocate specialising ingender law and other areas, said on Twitter.

She was referring to the case that led to the U.S. judgment.