Today's Nagarik had a news item that showed a thousand-rupee note with a fetus on the watermark area. This gory choice of graphics because a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of Nepal passed a judgment ordering the Government of Nepal to ensure access to abortion services for all Nepali women, regardless of their economic situation.
It is just one rung below a constitutional protection of the right to abortion. The circumstances under which abortion is legal in Nepal was expanded recently, just in the past year, but this judgment will pave way for protection of that privilege, making it possible to enshrine it as a legal right.
I do not know what exact circumstances regulate the right to abortion, but it is not an absolute one, although I remember it being quite comprehensive.
What I don't remember is hearing any amount of protest against these legal provisions. It is quite possible that the funds pro-choice organizations from the US and Europe play a large role in making possible the lobbying for abortion rights in Nepal.
Does this mean, as the laws become more enshrined, there will be fundamentalist money from the US or the Middle East to lobby against the gains made in the field of reproductive rights?
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