The U.S. must be held accountable on the world stage for its escalating attacks on reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.
The periodic U.N. review of the United States’ human rights record is coming up in November. With the Trump administration’s far-reaching, intensifying attacks, the timing could not be more opportune. Never have U.S. institutions, funding and initiatives that promote the rule of law, faced such an abject threat. This is a moment to shine a light on U.S. abuses on the global stage.
U.S. policymakers and the public rarely consider the experiences of U.S. residents through a human rights lens — but doing so is eye-opening. Abortion is a key case in point.
Health, human rights and reproductive justice organizations — including local organizations in Texas and Louisiana — recently joined to highlight the significant deterioration of individuals’ reproductive and bodily autonomy in the United States. As part of the review, during every four years of a country’s record, this U.N. submission was one among many submitted.
Forty-one states have banned abortion in some form since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Of these, 12 ban abortion altogether and another four ban abortion at six weeks — when many people do not yet realize they are pregnant. Another seven ban abortion at or before 18 weeks. Many state laws involve criminal and civil penalties.
Pregnant people denied their rights are effectively forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, travel long distances at substantial hardship to access care, self-manage their abortions, and in some instances, risk their lives. And many people cannot travel for care because of high costs, immigration status, and parole- or probation-related restrictions.
States … may not regulate pregnancy or abortion … in a manner that runs contrary to their duty to ensure that women and girls do not have to resort to unsafe abortions.
United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Reproductive and bodily autonomy are, in fact, guaranteed under a panoply of human rights under international law, including the rights to life, liberty, security of person, health, privacy, nondiscrimination and to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The rights to freedom of movement, religion, conscience or belief, and to seek, receive and impart information also underlie individuals’ ability to exercise reproductive and bodily autonomy. While Roe v. Wade grounded abortion within a concept of privacy, human rights offers a far more expansive view.
Human rights law is clear that rights attach at birth and the pregnant person’s health and life take priority. As a U.N. expert group on discrimination against women and girls put it, “Restrictions on women’s sexual and reproductive health rights not only limit their agency but also hinder their full participation in society.”
Human rights analysis also lays bare the interconnected and intersecting ways in which denying people autonomy causes harm, reinforcing the concept of reproductive justice. Human rights bodies have notably expressed concern that “racial and ethnic minorities in the United States are disproportionately affected by higher rates of maternal mortality and morbidity and are at a higher risk … of lacking the means to overcome socioeconomic and other barriers to access to safe abortion.”
For all of these reasons, the U.N. Human Rights Committee has confirmed that “[r]estrictions on the ability of women or girls to seek abortion must not … jeopardize their lives, subject them to physical or mental pain or suffering, [and] states … may not regulate pregnancy or abortion … in a manner that runs contrary to their duty to ensure that women and girls do not have to resort to unsafe abortions.”
The Trump administration’s attacks on reproductive autonomy throw oil on the fire he started in 2020. Less than three months since taking office, the Trump administration dismissed challenges to states that fail to ensure federally mandated emergency health-stabilizing care, which in some cases involves abortions.
It also reinstituted the global gag rule, which bans foreign assistance to organizations if they provide, counsel, refer or advocate for abortion, even if the activities are legal in their country and supported by non-U.S. funds. His administration further defunded the World Health Organization and drastically reduced USAID funding, which provided critical reproductive health resources globally for decades.
The U.S. is now a global regressive outlier on reproductive and bodily autonomy. Yet experience shows that positive change is possible. Strategic intervention and perseverance have helped fuel major advances for reproductive autonomy in countries around the world, including in Ireland and across Latin America. The upcoming U.N. review is not a panacea, and the Trump administration will surely try to undercut it. But it is an important opportunity to document abuses — including and beyond reproductive autonomy — and keep the pressure on.
Great Job Jaime M. Gher & the Team @ Ms. Magazine Source link for sharing this story.
