The punishment for illegal abortion in India ranges from up to three years in prison for ending an early pregnancy without legal authorization to life imprisonment when the abortion is done without the woman’s consent or when she dies as a result. These penalties sit in Sections 88 through 92 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which took over from the Indian Penal Code on July 1, 2024 and kept the old abortion-related offenses almost word-for-word.1Bureau of Police Research and Development. Comparison Summary of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 to the Indian Penal Code, 1860 An abortion is only lawful when it is carried out under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971. Anything outside that framework is a criminal offense, and in many situations the pregnant woman herself can be prosecuted alongside the person who performed the procedure.
Causing a Miscarriage: Three to Seven Years
Section 88 of the BNS is the baseline offense. Anyone who voluntarily causes a pregnant woman to miscarry, where the procedure is not done in good faith to save her life, commits a crime. The person performing the act and the pregnant woman who consents to or induces the termination are both covered. The sentence depends on how far the pregnancy has progressed:2Devgan.in. Indian Penal Code Section 312 – Causing Miscarriage
- Before the woman is “quick with child”: up to three years of imprisonment, a fine, or both.
- After she is quick with child: up to seven years of imprisonment and a mandatory fine.
“Quick with child” is not tied to a specific gestational week. It refers to the stage when fetal movement becomes detectable, which courts have generally treated as the point the woman can feel the fetus moving. The jump from three to seven years reflects the law’s view that a more developed pregnancy carries greater weight.
The statute’s own exception, for procedures done “in good faith for the purpose of saving the life of the woman,” is narrow and predates modern abortion law. In practice, almost every legal termination today runs through the MTP Act rather than this older exception.
Abortion Without the Woman’s Consent: Up to Life Imprisonment
Section 89 punishes causing a miscarriage without the woman’s consent. The sentence is imprisonment for life, or up to ten years, plus a mandatory fine.3Devgan.in. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita – Section 89 The gestational stage does not matter: the same ceiling applies whether the woman was quick with child or in an earlier stage.4Indian Kanoon. Indian Penal Code 1860 – Section 313
No defense survives when consent is missing. The good-faith life-saving exception does not apply, and the MTP Act requires the woman’s own consent, or a guardian’s consent for minors. Someone who slips an abortifacient drug to a woman without her knowledge, or who physically forces her into a procedure, is exposed to the same sentencing range as many violent felonies.
If the Woman Dies: Section 90
When an illegal abortion attempt kills the woman, Section 90 applies. The prosecution does not have to prove that the offender intended or expected her to die. The only intent required is the intent to cause the miscarriage.5Devgan.in. Indian Penal Code Section 314 – Death Caused by Act Done with Intent to Cause Miscarriage Two tiers apply:
- If the woman consented to the abortion: up to ten years of imprisonment and a fine.
- If she did not consent: imprisonment for life, or up to ten years, plus a fine.6Indian Kanoon. Indian Penal Code 1860 – Section 314
This is where clandestine abortions carry their heaviest legal risk. An unlicensed practitioner who loses a patient can face a life sentence even though the death was unintended. The provision exists because back-alley procedures are inherently dangerous, and the law treats a fatal outcome as a foreseeable consequence of the underlying criminal act.
Preventing a Live Birth or Killing a Quick Unborn Child
Two further sections cover acts near the end of pregnancy or acts that cause fetal death through violence.
Section 91 applies when someone acts before birth with the specific intention of making sure the child does not survive delivery, or of causing it to die immediately after being born. If the act succeeds, the penalty is up to ten years of imprisonment, a fine, or both.7Devgan.in. Indian Penal Code Section 315 – Act Done with Intent to Prevent Child Being Born Alive or to Cause It to Die After Birth The good-faith exception for saving the mother’s life applies here too.
Section 92 covers acts that would amount to culpable homicide if they killed the mother but instead kill a quick unborn child. The offender need not have targeted the fetus. If the act was dangerous enough to have killed the mother, and it kills the fetus, the penalty is up to ten years and a fine.8Devgan.in. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita – Section 92 A violent assault on a pregnant woman causing fetal death is the typical scenario. The fetus must have reached the stage of detectable movement; earlier pregnancies fall under Section 88 or 89 instead.
What Makes an Abortion Legal
Every BNS provision above has the same escape valve: compliance with the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, as amended in 2021. A registered medical practitioner who terminates a pregnancy within the Act’s limits is shielded from prosecution.9India Code. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 The Act’s gestational framework is:
- Up to 20 weeks: one registered medical practitioner must form a good-faith opinion that continuing the pregnancy risks the woman’s life, would cause grave injury to her physical or mental health, or that the child would likely be born with serious abnormalities.
- 20 to 24 weeks: two registered medical practitioners must concur, and the woman must fall within prescribed categories, including survivors of rape or incest, minors, women whose marital status changed during pregnancy, and women with physical or mental disabilities.10Press Information Bureau. Rajya Sabha Passes The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2021
- After 24 weeks: only a Medical Board can authorize the procedure, and only on diagnosis of substantial fetal abnormality. No upper gestational limit applies in those cases.
Contraceptive failure is a recognized ground for termination. Consent of the pregnant woman is required; for minors or women lacking legal capacity, a guardian’s written consent is needed. In X v. The Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department (September 2022), the Supreme Court held that the MTP Act does not distinguish between married and unmarried women, and that a woman seeking termination on the ground of rape need not file a police complaint or prove the assault in court.11Indian Kanoon. X vs The Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Department on 29 September, 2022 A procedure performed outside this framework, even by a qualified doctor, loses its legal shield.
Sex-Selective Abortion Is Punished Separately
If the abortion was motivated by the fetus’s sex, a second criminal statute kicks in alongside the BNS. The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (PCPNDT Act) makes it illegal to conduct prenatal sex determination or to communicate the sex of a fetus to anyone. Its penalties run independently of the BNS:12India Code. Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994
- Medical professionals: up to three years and a fine of up to ₹10,000 for a first offense; up to five years and ₹50,000 for a subsequent offense. Registration is suspended upon framing of charges and removed for five years on first conviction, permanently on any later conviction.
- Anyone seeking sex selection or unauthorized prenatal diagnostic techniques: up to three years and a fine of up to ₹50,000 for a first offense; up to five years and up to ₹1 lakh for subsequent offenses.
A woman who was compelled to undergo the prohibited procedure is specifically exempted. Every ultrasound clinic must register under the Act and maintain detailed records; the pregnant woman must declare before the scan that she does not wish to know the sex, and the practitioner must sign a declaration on each report confirming no disclosure.13India Code. Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Rules, 1996
Cover-Up Offenses: Abandonment and Concealment
Illegal abortion cases often bring further charges when something is done with the body or the surviving child.
Under Section 93, a parent or guardian who leaves a child under twelve in any place intending to wholly abandon the child faces up to seven years of imprisonment, a fine, or both. The statute expressly preserves prosecution for murder or culpable homicide if the child dies as a result of the abandonment.14Indian Kanoon. Indian Penal Code 1860 – Section 317 This captures cases where a child is born despite efforts to terminate the pregnancy and is then left to die.
Under Section 94, secretly burying or otherwise disposing of a child’s body to conceal that a birth occurred carries up to two years of imprisonment, a fine, or both. It applies whether the child died before, during, or after delivery.15Devgan.in. Indian Penal Code Section 318 – Concealment of Birth by Secret Disposal of Dead Body The intent that matters is the intent to hide the birth, not necessarily to cause the child’s death. These charges commonly accompany prosecutions under Sections 88 or 90 when someone tries to cover up an illegal abortion by disposing of the remains.
Why the Section Numbers Changed
If you are reading older case law or news reports, you will see the abortion offenses listed under IPC Sections 312 to 318. Those sections map directly onto BNS Sections 88 to 94, with the wording and penalties carried over almost unchanged.16Ministry of Home Affairs. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 Judgments interpreting the IPC provisions remain good law for the equivalent BNS sections. For any offense committed on or after July 1, 2024, the BNS numbering is what charge sheets and courts use.