The U.N. Should Condemn the U.S.’ Human Rights Record on Abortion

The U.S. must be held accountable on the world stage for its escalating attacks on reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.

July 9, 2025
by Jaime M. Gher and Elise Keppler

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.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/09/united-nations-usa-abortion-human-rights-record-health-death/

09.07.2025

Commentary

United Nations

Universal Periodic Review

India: Why maternal deaths continue to haunt

A recent United Nations report ranks India second in global maternal deaths, an alarming number despite the strides the country has made in reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR). Globally, approximately one woman died every two minutes due to a...

Aksheev Thakur, Tribune News Service
Apr 11, 2025

A recent United Nations report ranks India second in global maternal deaths, an alarming number despite the strides the country has made in reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR).

Globally, approximately one woman died every two minutes due to a maternal cause in 2023, notes the report titled ‘Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000-2023’. While Nigeria saw the highest number of maternal deaths in 2023, India ranked second, sharing the spot with the Democratic Republic of Congo; both accounted for 7.2 per cent each of global deaths.

Continued: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/explainer-why-maternal-deaths-continue-to-haunt/

11.04.2025

News

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

maternal mortality

Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000-2023

Trump’s Abortion Policy Could Go Global

In this year’s U.S. election, abortion is also a top foreign-policy issue.

By Jodi Enda, the Washington bureau chief and senior correspondent for The Fuller Project.
November 1, 2024

Less than two weeks before his 2020 election defeat, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration rolled out a document that purported to promote women’s health and rights while declaring that there was “no international right to abortion.”

“It’s the first time that a multilateral coalition has been built around the issue of defending life,” then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a signing ceremony, conducted virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda joined the United States in sponsoring the nonbinding directive, called the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family. Another 28 countries, many with authoritarian governments that repress women’s rights, signed it.

Continued https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/11/01/trumps-abortion-policy-could-go-global/

New UN Report: Polish Abortion Law Violates Human Rights

A comprehensive investigation reveals the devastating consequences of Poland's restrictive abortion law on women's health and bodily autonomy, requiring urgent legal reform.

Center for Reproductive Rights
Sept 13, 2024

In a groundbreaking report, the United Nations (UN) has denounced Poland’s restrictive abortion law for causing severe human rights violations. The three-year investigation, conducted by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), reveals the devastating toll the law is taking on women’s health and rights in Poland and calls for swift and sweeping legal reform to legalize and fully decriminalize abortion.

The CEDAW inquiry into Poland’s abortion law was initiated after submissions by the Center for Reproductive Rights, in collaboration with Polish civil society organizations including the Foundation for Women and Family Planning (FEDERA) and the Karat Coalition. This effort sought to draw urgent international attention to Poland’s severe abortion restrictions and their harmful impact on women’s health, rights, and bodily autonomy over decades.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/un-cedaw-report-poland-abortion/

13.09.2024

News

CEDAW

Center for Reproductive Rights

FEDERA

Foundation for Women and Family Planning

Karat Coalition

Katrine Thomasen

UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Rights experts reveal impact of Poland’s restrictive abortion laws on women

United Nations
26 August 2024

The rights of women in Poland are currently being violated due to restrictive abortion laws that have contributed to “several preventable deaths,” according to independent rights experts on Monday.

These restrictive laws have forced many women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, travel abroad to have legal abortions or seek private unsafe procedures, based on information from the UN human rights office (OHCHR).

The report from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) published on Monday, found that most abortions in Poland are being carried out illegally and in unsafe conditions as it is illegal to assist women in getting abortions, with minimal legal exceptions, and services are often inaccessible.

Continued: https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1153591

26.08.2024

Research

CEDAW

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Genoveva Tisheva

UN Human Rights Council

Women’s bodies being turned into ‘battlegrounds’—UN

Agence France-Presse
April 18, 2024

GENEVA, Switzerland — Women’s bodies have become political “battlegrounds,” putting at risk 30 years of progress on sexual and reproductive health for women and girls, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.

Though maternal mortality rates and unwanted pregnancy rates have been steadily falling, progress is now slowing or even flatlining on key measures, said the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency.

Continued: https://globalnation.inquirer.net/232388/womens-bodies-being-turned-into-battlegrounds-un

18.04.2024

News

gender-based violence

United Nations Population Fund

Women’s Bodies Being Turned Into ‘Battlegrounds’: UN

By Agnès PEDRERO

April 17, 2024

Women's bodies have become political "battlegrounds", putting at risk 30 years of progress on sexual and reproductive health for women and girls, the UN warned Wednesday.

Continued: https://www.barrons.com/news/women-s-bodies-being-turned-into-battlegrounds-un-21dd84a5

17.04.2024

UN experts say U.S. abortion bans violate human rights

New recommendations call on the U.S. to fully decriminalize abortion

November 17, 2023

The United States is violating human rights by denying legal access to abortion—and should take immediate action to end the criminalization of abortion at the federal, state and local levels. This is the newly released conclusion of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in response to testimony from Ipas and partners in October.

“This is a reckoning for U.S. policymakers at every level of government,” said Bethany Van Kampen Saravia, Ipas senior legal and policy advisor, who attended the October hearing in Geneva. “The UN Human Rights Committee has appropriately called on the U.S. government to acknowledge the human rights crisis that is taking place within America, as states continue to ban abortion and limit access to sexual and reproductive health care.”

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/un-experts-say-u-s-abortion-bans-violate-human-rights/

Reproductive health advocates take the fight for abortion rights to the United Nations

Oct 26, 2023
By Kaitlyn Kennedy

Geneva, Switzerland - As a slew of abortion bans take effect around the US, advocates are fighting back during the 139th session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

They argued that guaranteeing access to abortion falls within the scope of the US' international obligations, as bans can deprive pregnant people of their right to life under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Continued: https://www.tag24.com/topic/abortion-rights/reproductive-health-advocates-take-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-to-the-united-nations-2988945

United States: Abortion bans put millions of women and girls at risk, UN experts say

02 June 2023

GENEVA – Millions of women and girls across the United States have suffered an alarming deterioration in access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, following the US Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022, UN experts* said today.

As of January 2023, abortion has been banned in 14 States across the country, and the consequences of the Supreme Court decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organisation has reverberated throughout the entire legal and policy system, the experts said.

Continued: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/06/united-states-abortion-bans-put-millions-women-and-girls-risk-un-experts-say

02.06.2023