Category Archives: Uncategorized

Concerning the Texas Anti-Abortion Laws

The Supreme Court of United States (US) has refused to overturn the state’s anti-abortion legislation. After cardiac activity in the embryo is found, the law prohibits abortion. It’s quite early in a pregnancy at that moment, and many women are unaware they’re expecting. Even so, people in Texas have the right to sue anybody who conducts or helps and abets an abortion. The Court was asked if the statute could be challenged in court, rather than whether it was constitutional.

Abortions for medical reasons are permitted under the law, although the exceptions are limited. Texas has a population of 7 million women of reproductive age, and the new legislation will make it more difficult for them all to access abortions. It will also erect virtually insurmountable barriers for some of the US’s most disadvantaged people. Teenagers, low-income individuals, people of color, and undocumented immigrants are among the most vulnerable.

The Supreme Court might still temporarily overturn the statute, but for the time being, abortion is effectively outlawed in the state. According to abortion providers that filed a request to overturn the legislation, it would prevent at least 85 percent of Texas abortion patients from receiving care. All 11 Planned Parenthood health facilities in Texas that offer abortions have stopped scheduling those that the legislation forbids since mid-August.

A Mississippi statute prohibiting abortions beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy will also be considered by the court. Abortion rights supporters have pointed out that the Democratic Party still has the potential to entrench abortion rights in law. Some feel that the current Supreme Court’s power should be limited since it is so hostile to abortion rights. The SehMat Foundation believes that the Supreme Court’s decision is leading the country back to the 1970s.

There is no provision in the law that allows Texans to sue the males who impregnated these women; their burden is nil, but the women’s burdens are considerable. The law favours making claims on people’s bodies in order to achieve a public objective. The Foundation believes that an action is correct only if it is correct for all individuals in all conditions.

The Foundation urges the US Attorney General to pursue people who sue anybody who performs, helps or abets an abortion in violation of federal civil rights statutes. It is a felony in the US to oppress, threaten, or intimidate someone who is exercising a constitutional right. The Foundation also urges the US Justice Department to challenge the statute using the Ku Klux Klan Act.

kumar.tanishk15@gmail.com

Concerning the Judicial Dilemma of Courts Regarding Marital Rape

Four years after the Supreme Court of India referred to Justice J.S. Verma’s Committee’s recommendation to make marital rape a crime and stated “a rapist remains a rapist and marriage with the victim does not convert him into a non-rapist”, Indian courts continue to take views on marital rape that are polar opposites. The Kerala High court recently backed marital rape and acknowledged it as a form of cruelty and a valid ground for divorce. It stated, “A husband’s licentious disposition disregarding the autonomy of the wife is a marital rape. Although such conduct can not be penalised, it falls into the frame of physical and mental cruelty. ” The judgements have been contradictory.

A court in Maharashtra gave anticipatory bail to a man while concluding that forcible sex with his wife was not an “illegal thing” even though she said it left her paralysed. On a similar account, the Chhattisgarh High Court held that “sexual intercourse or any sexual act by a husband with a legally wedded wife is not rape even if it was by force or against her wish.” The SehMat Foundation believes that we need to understand why legislative immunity is given to marital rape and where it stems from.

This mentality roots from the outdated notion that the husband is the master of the wife and the wife should always remain subservient to the husband and his needs and should always be no more than a chattel to her husband. The Gujarat High court observed that “a law that does not give married and unmarried women equal protection creates conditions that lead to rape.”
It instils an understanding that marital rape is acceptable and is pardonable, and hence, often people don’t even consider it as a crime or cruelty. The legislative amnesty continues to survive due to this.

The SehMat Foundation believes that the first and foremost thing people need to do is to ‘acknowledge’ the crime. This society has to consider it as an act of cruelty which needs to be punished and the right to bodily integrity has to be absolutely recognised and marital rape immunity has to be completely withdrawn and the courts, in unison, have to resonate with the recommendation that the J.S. Verma committee made, stating, “A marital or other relationship between the perpetrator and victim is not a valid defence against the crimes of rape or sexual violation. The relationship between the accused and the complainant is not relevant to the inquiry into whether the complainant consented to the sexual activity. The fact that the accused and victim are married or in another intimate relationship may not be regarded as a mitigating factor justifying lower sentences for rape.”

bhumisrivastava001@gmail.com