Since the beginning of the year, abortion has been banned in 14 states across the country, and the consequences of the Supreme Court decision have reverberated throughout the legal and political system, experts appointed by the Human Rights Council* said in a release this Friday.
“The regressive position taken by the United States Supreme Court…by essentially dismantling 50 years of precedent protecting the right to abortion in the country, puts millions of women and girls in grave danger,” they said.
The experts** declared that this landmark decision, which annuls the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling, violates international fundamental rights law.
inaccessible services
Experts argued that the bans have made abortion services largely inaccessible and have denied women and girls their fundamental human rights to comprehensive health care, including sexual and reproductive health.
This could lead to violations of women’s rights to privacy, bodily integrity and autonomy, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, equality and non-discrimination, and the right not to suffer torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and violence gender, they explained.
“Women and girls in disadvantaged situations are disproportionately affected because of these prohibitions,” the experts said. They refer to women and girls from marginalized communities, racial and ethnic minorities, migrants, with disabilities, or living on low income, in abusive relationships, or in rural areas.
Abortion rights supporters march in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington.
Infeasible Exceptions
The experts pointed out that the existing exceptions in some cases, to save the life of the mother, or conceptions resulting from rape or incest, although narrow, have resulted unfeasible in practice.
“The conditions of the exceptions often do not reflect the medical diagnosis and sometimes exclude conditions that endanger health,” they noted. “Even in cases where doctors determine that the abortion can go ahead, they are met with Difficulty putting together a full team due to the reluctance of other health professionals”.
They warned that the Supreme Court decision also had a chilling effect on doctors and health personnelwho could face legal consequences for their care decisions, including those regarding medically necessary or life-saving abortions, or the removal of fetal tissue from women with incomplete abortions.
Threats of death
“We are especially alarmed by the growing allegations of threats against the lives of service providers of abortion throughout the country,” the experts said.
The threat of criminalization in many States has discouraged women and girls from going to the health system and seeking prenatal carethe experts pointed out. “It is especially alarming that some clinics are refraining from providing abortion-related services, even in states where it remains legal,” they noted.
According to experts, state bans have been accompanied by a constant and rapid erosion of the right to privacy, as police and other criminal investigators increasingly rely on data to track those who request abortions or those who aid and abet them. Much of this data is accessible without a warrant.
“We urge both the federal and state governments to act to reverse the regressive rhetoric filtering through the legislative system and enact positive measures to guarantee access to legal and safe abortion“, the independent experts concluded.
*The special rapporteurs are part of what is known as Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent investigative and monitoring mechanisms that address specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. . Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organization and provide their services in an individual capacity.
***The experts are: Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Ivana Radačić (Vice-Chair), Elizabeth Broderick, Meskerem Geset Techane and Melissa Upreti, Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls; Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Felipe González Morales, special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; Olivier De Schutter, special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; Ana Brian Nougrères, special rapporteur on the right to privacy; Gerard Quinn, Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities; Ashwini KP, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
