| Summary: | <p>Reproductive rights remain deeply contested. Their scope, the duties they impose on the State, their response to conflicting interests, and in some cases their very protection within constitutions are being fiercely debated globally. In India, reproductive rights are not enumerated constitutionally. The Thesis seeks to construct the appropriate constitutional home for reproductive rights in India, to both anchor these rights within the Constitution and define their contours.</p>
<p>In Part I, the Thesis delineates what makes the constitutional home ‘appropriate’. It argues that reproductive rights aim to guarantee ‘real and effective’ reproductive decision-making. Reproductive decision-making ought to be valued because it is undergirded by two sets of interests, those represented by the individual and the social dimensions. The two dimensions are independent yet interrelated. The appropriate constitutional home for reproductive rights must, then, protect both interests and capture their interrelationship.</p>
<p>In Part II, the Thesis examines the existing constitutional home for reproductive rights in India: Article 21, the right to life and personal liberty. The Thesis then adds a second pillar to the home: Article 15, the right to non-discrimination. The Thesis interprets both provisions constitutionally and doctrinally. In turn, it assesses the provisions, so understood, against the normative framing in Part I, to arrive at a key conclusion. Articles 21 and 15, in their roles within the constitutional home, independently protect (or possess the potential to protect) the interests represented by the individual and the social dimensions respectively.</p>
<p>In Part III, the Thesis moves beyond treating the provisions in isolation to viewing them in synthesis. The Thesis illustrates the contributions of the synthesis, in constitutionally grounding reproductive rights, through the use of two examples: abortion and preventable maternal mortality and morbidity. The Thesis shows how the synthesis captures the interrelationship between the individual and social dimensions, to strengthen the constitutional protection granted to reproductive rights, at each stage of analysis: identifying the rights violation, conducting the limitations analysis, interpreting the law, and scoping positive duties on the State. The Thesis, thus, proposes a ‘new’ constitutional home for reproductive rights in India: the synthesis between Article 21 and Article 15.</p>
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