Saudi Arabia joins Trump-led coalition claiming women have ‘no international right to abortion’

October 22, 2020 By Julia Conley, Common Dreams

Filming of The Handmaid's Tale at the Lincoln Memorial (Victoria Pickering via Flickr and a CC )


Further distancing itself from longtime U.S. allies regarding reproductive rights, the Trump administration on Thursday joined 32 countries in signing a declaration claiming that pregnant people have “no international right to abortion.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended the virtual signing ceremony for the so-called “Geneva Consensus Declaration” after the administration formed an international coalition comprised of countries where abortion care is banned or severely restricted, to counter the United Nations’ support for reproductive rights.

“It carries no legitimacy within the U.N. system―but the sentiments it represents are dangerous nonetheless. In contrast to what this declaration states, there is broad international consensus on the critical need for access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, including abortion.”

—Jenny Vanyur, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

The Trump administration has opposed the inclusion of language affirming that people around the world have inalienable “sexual and reproductive rights” in documents including the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The declaration introduced Thursday is aimed at “strengthening the family” and states that there is no “international obligation on the part of states to finance or facilitate abortion.” At the ceremony, Pompeo said the document “defends the unborn and reiterates the vital importance of the family,” while Planned Parenthood derided the declaration as a “farce” whose signatories are out of touch with public opinion regarding the right to abortion care.



“It carries no legitimacy within the U.N. system―but the sentiments it represents are dangerous nonetheless,” Jenny Vanyur, associate director of global advocacy for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told HuffPost. “In contrast to what this declaration states, there is broad international consensus on the critical need for access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, including abortion.”

According to Pew Research, 61% of Americans believe abortion care should be legal in all or most cases. Internationally, support is even greater, with Ipsos reporting last month that 70% of 17,500 adults surveyed in 25 countries support the right to abortion care.

Abortions have been recognized as a constitutional right in the U.S. since 1973, while the five countries that joined the U.S. as co-sponsors of the declaration—Egypt, Uganda, Indonesia, Brazil, and Hungary—impose severe restrictions on abortion access.

Other countries joining the U.S.-led coalition include Saudi Arabia, Belarus, and Poland, which on Thursday imposed a near-total ban on abortion, while longtime U.S. allies including France and the U.K. are steadfast supporters of the U.N.’s declarations affirming the right to abortion care.

As a constitutional tribunal in Poland handed down its ruling amid protests and the Trump administration celebrated the signing of the Geneva Consensus Declaration, Amnesty International issued a reminder on social media that outlawing abortion care does not stop women from obtaining abortions, but rather makes the procedure far less safe.

Abortion is a human right
It’s that simple. Everyone has the right to decide what happens to their body. Criminalizing abortion doesn’t stop abortion, it just makes it less safe.
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) October 22, 2020

Other critics in the U.S. condemned the Trump administration for leading the international effort to undermine women’s reproductive rights.

This is a cruel attempt to spread an anti-abortion, anti-women, & ultimately anti-health care agenda across the globe amid a pandemic. This "consensus declaration" contradicts broad international law regarding the health & rights of women & girls. https://t.co/FuqO1wgEgn
— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) October 22, 2020

Another day, another shameful move by the State Department and HHS to dismantle long-standing international human rights agreements and frameworks. https://t.co/l5jgH9rMN2
— Planned Parenthood Global (@ppglobe) October 22, 2020

The declaration was signed a month after the State Department proposed an expansion of the global gag rule, which would further strip healthcare funding from global organizations which provide abortion care or counseling, and as the Republican-led Senate moved toward confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. The judge has publicly supported a Christian fundamentalist group which espouses extreme anti-choice views and has suggested the Supreme Court will restrict abortion access.

“This administration doesn’t seem content to stop until it has fully trampled on the rights, autonomy, and dignity of women and girls everywhere,” said Tarah Demant, director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Identity program at Amnesty International USA. “Every person has a right to their individual personal and bodily autonomy, despite this administration wanting to prescribe otherwise.”

U.S. signs international anti-abortion declaration



Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that "there is no international right to an abortion." Photo by Greg Nash/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 22 (UPI) -- The United States on Thursday joined Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia and Uganda as co-sponsors of an international anti-abortion declaration that was signed by some 30 United Nations members, most of which are widely seen as authoritarian, illiberal or both.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar participated in the virtual signing ceremony of the Geneva Consensus Declaration that calls on the signatories to protect women's health, preserve life, strengthen the family unit and protect every nation's national sovereignty in global politics, especially concerning their right to make laws concerning abortion.


The declaration states the signing countries "emphasize that 'in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning" and that "the child ... needs special safeguards and care ... before as well as after birth." It also says states have no obligation to finance or facilitate abortion.

Pompeo called it a "historic" signing as it was the first multilateral coalition built around the issue of "defending life."

"There is no international right to an abortion," Pompeo said in a press briefing.

Among the signatories are countries that have voiced to LGBTQ and reproductive rights, with many of the 32 signatories including Pakistan, South Sudan, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo ranked the worst countries for women by a study from Georgetown University's Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

The coalition stands opposed to the United Nations stance on abortion as a human right, and Azar described the Geneva Consensus Declaration as a "tool" for countries to defend their principles against multilateral organizations.

"We will denounce these organizations when they overstep their mandates by promoting positions that can never gain consensus," he said. "We will unequivocally declare that there is no international right to abortion. We will proudly put women's health first at every stage of life."

Amnesty International called the declaration a "giant step backwards" for the United States as it joins a list of countries that put the lives and health of people at risk.

"The United States' stance flies in the face of human rights and decades of health research," Tarah Demant, direct of the Gender, Sexuality and Identity Program at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement. "This is about people living full lives that are their own -- not the lives that the government has prescribed for them."

The non-binding declaration is a continuation of the Trump administration's stance against international organizations prescribing abortion as a human right.



In May, the U.S. Agency for International Development criticized the United Nations in a letter for using the coronavirus for "promoting abortion" when it included sexual and reproduction health services within its Global Humanitarian Response Plan to COVID-19 guidelines.

In July, Pompeo was criticized over a controversial report unveiled by the State Department on human rights for listing abortion along with affirmative action and same-sex marriage as "divisive social and political controversies" where proponents commonly "couch. their claims in terms of basic rights."

On Thursday, the United States' top diplomat said the Trump administration has "defended the right to human dignity like no other administration in history."

"He had done it like no other president in history," he said. "We have mounted an unprecedented defense of the unborn abroad."

The Global Justice Center lambasted the Trump administration Thursday saying despite its rhetoric it has never put the health of women first.

"This administration has consistently [put] both women's bodies, here at home and abroad, last," Akila Radhakrishnan, president of Global Justice Center, said in a statement.

"Just because these regressive governments keep asserting that abortion is not a human right, doesn't make it true; the international human rights framework is clear on this issue," Radhakrishnan said. "There is a reason why none of the U.S.' traditional allies, nor countries with strong records on human rights, joined this declaration -- if flies in the face of decades of hard-fought victories for the rights for women."