9.2 Abortion

The offence: procuring or causing the miscarriage of a woman outside the law's permission. Nepal's landmark reform: the 2002 amendment (the 11th-amendment era) legalized abortion — among South Asia's first — and the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Rights Act, 2075 (2018) now frames the lawful grounds: the woman's voluntary request within the first trimester (12 weeks); longer windows for rape and incest pregnancies; the maternal life/health exceptions; fetal-impairment grounds — all through authorized services. The consequence: abortion outside these grounds (unsafe, unauthorized, coerced) remains criminal — the offence now policing the unqualified provider and the forced termination rather than the woman's choice; sex-selective abortion is the modern aggravation (the patriarchal misuse criminalized and monitored).