By Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues
A UN group of so-called experts used their UN positions to issued two radical pro-abortion statements. In the first statement—United States: UN experts denounce further attacks against right to safe abortion and Supreme Court complicity— they denounced Texas Senate Bill 8 prohibiting abortion after a heartbeat is detected. They called the law “alarming” and that it “epitomizes a series of retrogressions in the United States on the right to abortion notwithstanding constitutional recognition of that right”.
They were also critical of the Supreme Court’s decision to deny the emergency pro-abortion request to stop the law from taking effect stating: “We urge relevant judicial authorities to halt the implementation of this law which violates women’s fundamental human rights and generates a climate of stigma and fear…”
They falsely claim that with passage of the Texas law, “the United States stands in violation of international law. Legal restrictions on abortion such as those contained in Texas S.B. 8 violate the rights of pregnant women to life, health (including sexual and reproductive health), privacy, bodily integrity, equality and non-discrimination, and freedom from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment as well as gender-based violence.”
The US government is urged “to prevent retrogression in access to abortion in the United States and instead enact positive measures to ensure access to safe and legal abortion”. The group states its fear that “states will continue pursuing this pattern” adding their concern over what is described as “the influence of ideologically and religiously motivated interference in public health matters” explained as being “particularly detrimental to the health and well-being of women and girls.”
‘The second statement was issued in support of the day designated by pro-abortion groups as “International Safe Abortion Day” which claimed that “abortion is essential health care and a human right”. It further reiterated pro-abortion talking points including: “Denial of access to abortion services jeopardizes a person’s physical and mental health and takes away their autonomy and agency. It unjustly denies them the freedom to live with dignity and on equal terms with other human beings while exposing them to various forms of violence and oppression.”
It continued, “Religious fundamentalists and their political allies have led an organized and well- funded global political backlash against gender equality by invoking religious freedom and traditional values and abortion has been placed at its center. This backlash, in particular against those who require abortions and those healthcare providers who are abortion providers, is being propelled by some Governments who continue to challenge the universality of human rights in global political spaces, including at the Human Rights Council, as well as locally.”
The group is composed of Special Rapporteurs and members of Working Groups, part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. They are “independent experts” who work on a voluntary basis, are not UN staff and are not paid for their work. Many are associated with radical pro-abortion organizations.
The group includes the chair, vice-chair and members of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls; the Special Rapporteuron violence against women, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem; and the chair, vice-chair and members of the Working Group on arbitrary detention.