While Reproductive Rights Advance Globally, the United States Backpedals
Amid the enactment of anti-abortion legislation in several American states1 and conversations in the Trump Administration of reversing Roe v. Wade,2 the United States has brought its fight against reproductive rights to the international stage.3 The international response and the shift in reproductive-rights laws in recent years, however, suggest that the United States is going in the opposite direction of the rest of the world.
Alex Azar, the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, addressed the UN General Assembly on September 23, 2019 to argue against an international right to an abortion.4 Nineteen countries signed Azar’s statement,5 which followed Azar’s similar plea in July, where he asked foreign countries to “join the United States in ensuring that every sovereign state has the ability to … protect the unborn and defend the family.”6
The Netherlands spoke out against Azar’s statement on behalf of fifty-eight countries and stressed the importance of a woman’s right to choose.7 Shannon Kowalski, director of advocacy and policy at the International Women's Health Coalition, stated that the United States is “isolated” and “extreme” in its position.8 Kowalski noted that the countries that signed Azar’s statement, such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, are “hardly champions of women’s rights.”9 The United Nations Human Rights Committee’s position is that abortion is a human right and has advocated against limiting access to abortions, but the Trump Administration has been pushing for the opposite.10
Other countries, such as Ireland and Australia, have had a different shift than the United States and have recently expanded their national reproductive rights. The Republic of Ireland enacted a law in 2018 that allows abortions upon request until twelve weeks into pregnancy, at any time during the pregnancy when there is a risk of death or serious harm to the mother, or at any time during the pregnancy when it is discovered that the fetus is likely to die within twenty-eight days of its birth.11 Similarly, Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, decriminalized abortion in 2019 by overturning a 119-year-old law.12 The new law allows women to get abortions upon request up to twenty-two weeks into pregnancy.13 After twenty-two weeks, women will need the approval of two specialists.14
Currently, only five percent of countries in the world prohibit abortions altogether, and only twenty-two percent limit abortion to cases where the woman’s life is in danger.15 The remaining countries have made abortions much more accessible.16 In fourteen percent of countries, abortions are allowed for preserving overall health, twenty-three percent allow abortions on broad social or economic grounds, and thirty-six percent of countries allow abortions upon request within the gestation period.17
The United States established a woman’s right to choose as a constitutional right in 1973.18 Today, when many countries are just catching up, the Trump Administration is pushing the opposite narrative and trying to encourage the international legal community to follow suit. Reproductive rights are essential in advancing women’s positions in the world.19 Controlling their own bodies is necessary in order for women to be able to plan their futures and have agency over their own lives.20 The United States is in the minority in its position and the international community therefore should not give in. Countries in the United Nations should continue to push for recognition of an international human right to be able to get an abortion and continue to influence other nations to adopt legislation that enforces reproductive rights.
Michelle Kraidman is a staff member of Fordham International Law Journal Volume XLIII.
This is a student blog post and in no way represents the views of the Fordham International Law Journal.
1 See Isaac Sabetai, AJC at the Gold Dome: Abortion Bill, Atlanta J-Const. (Sept. 19, 2019), https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/look-abortion-bills-around-the-2019/rjgjwPxL6ZKBOOPBJ1SqmK/#.
2 See Aaron Blake, Trump Makes Clear Roe v. Wade is on the Chopping Block, Wash. Post (July 2, 2018), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/07/02/trump-makes-clear-roe-v-wade-is-on-the-chopping-block/.
3 Sarah Mccammon, At U.N., Trump Administration Professes ‘No International Right to Abortion’, Nat’l Pub. Radio (Sept. 23, 2019), https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763496171/at-u-n-trump-administration-professes-no-international-right-to-an-abortion.
4 Id.
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 Id.
8 Id.
9 Id.
10 Press Release, Center for Reproductive Rights, UN Human Rights Committee Asserts that Access to Abortion and Prevention of Maternal Mortality are Human Rights (Oct. 31, 2018) (on file at https://reproductiverights.org/press-room/un-human-rights-committee-asserts-access-abortion-and-prevention-maternal-mortality-are).
11 Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 (Act No. 31/2018) (Ir.).
12 Julia Hollingsworth, Abortion Decriminalized in Sydney After Australian Lawmakers Overturn 119-year-old Law, CNN (Sept. 26, 2019), https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/asia/abortion-australia-decriminalized-intl-hnk/index.html.
13 Reproductive Health Care Reform Act 2019 (NSW) (Austl.).
14 Id.
15 The World’s Abortion Laws, Ctr. for Reprod. Rights, https://reproductiverights.org/worldabortionlaws (last visited Sept. 27, 2019).
16 Id.
17 Id.
18 See generally Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
19 See Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights, Glob. Fund for Women, https://www.globalfundforwomen.org/ sexual-reproductive-health-rights/ (last visited Oct. 10, 2019).
20 Id.