185617 Women's health and the right to abortion in the US: International human rights without borders

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 9:10 AM

Beth E. Rivin, MD, MPH , School of Law, The University of Washington and Uplift International, Seattle, WA
Seventy thousand women around the world die each year from illegal abortions. Illegal abortions disproportionately impact poor women globally. The U.S. protection of women's access to safe and comprehensive abortion care has been steadily eroded since 1973 and continues to be on tenuous ground, legally. The legal basis for women's access to abortion services is the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade (1973), which defined the issue as a privacy issue. However, we argue that safe, comprehensive and legal abortion in the U.S. should not be based on the concept of privacy, but instead should be based on the international human right to health and the rights of women to reproductive information and services. The concept of privacy has not withstood time due to restrictions on access to abortion through gag rules, cuts in government funding, limits on family planning education and parental notice requirements. International Human Rights Law provides guidance for health and abortion rights in the U.S. Although the current U.S. Administration is generally hostile to international and human rights law, that has not always been so. After World War II, the U.S. was critical in shaping international human rights law. For women's health rights we look to the UDHR, ICESCR and CEDAW. Uplift International is a Seattle-based NGO that is advocating the use of international human rights norms and standards to protect women's reproductive health, including abortion services. Essentially, this shifts the dialogue about abortion from a privacy issue to an issue about women's health rights.

Learning Objectives:
Understand the relationship between reproductive health and human rights Understand how international human rights can frame the dialogue about abortion in the US Improve knowledge about specific human rights law that relates to abortion rights in the US

Keywords: Abortion, Human Rights

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Research Associate Professor of Law and Global Health and have worked as VP of Uplift International using international human rights law to inform the dialogue in the US about reproductive rights for women, including abortion
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.