Some countries have taken extraordinary steps to increase access to abortion in the last years. However, international rights groups have warned for decades that Roe v. Wade may be overturned and could lead to some nations adopting restrictive laws.
NPR’s Joe Hernandez and Ayana Archie report:
Ireland legalized abortion in 2019. Argentina legalized it by 2020. New Zealand made abortion legal in 2020. Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized it last year. The highest court of Colombia legalized abortion in February up to 24 weeks after the gestation.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Global Justice Center stated in a joint briefing that 60% of women in reproductive age live in countries with abortion.
They wrote that only 26 countries (representing 5% of all women in reproductive age) ban or prohibit abortion.
According to the brief, 34 of 36 countries classified by the United Nations as economically developed aEUR include the United States aEUR.” This makes it possible to have abortions. The only exceptions were Malta and Poland.
These groups also noted that the U.S. signed several international treaties, including the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that include the rights to nondiscrimination, the right not to be discriminated against, the right from torture and other cruel or inhumane treatment or punishments; and the right of privacy and the right for life.
The organizations claim that restricting abortion access will force people to look for unsafe and unsanitary procedures, aEUR,” thus jeopardizing their right of life.
Advocates for human rights claim that the reverse of Roe would not only affect the U.S.’s image on the international stage but could also lead to some countries adopting more restrictive laws.
Licha Nyiendo (chief legal officer of Human Rights First) stated in a statement following the leak of draft opinions that such a move was “a step in a very dangerous way for everyone in America and a frightening signal that authoritarians around world can take long-established rights away from their people.”
Tarah Demant is Amnesty International’s interim national coordinator for programs, advocacy, and government affairs. She told NPR that other nations could use the U.S. as a justification for their restrictive policies.
She cited Poland as an example.
Demant stated, “You’re looking into an emboldened Anti-Rights Movement.”
