Restricting access to abortion doesn’t stop people from seeking the procedure, “it only makes it more deadly,” a spokesman for the Secretary General of the UNAntonio Guterres, after the US Supreme Court overturned a 1973 decision legalizing abortion.
“Sexual and reproductive health and rights are the foundation of a life of choice, empowerment and equality for the world’s women and girls,” spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters.
“Restricting access to abortion doesn’t stop people from seeking an abortion, it just makes it more deadly,” he added.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, said that “a staggering 45% of all abortions in the world are unsafe, making this one of the leading causes of maternal death.”
The US court’s decision was “a huge setback” and a “Huge blow to women’s human rights and to gender equality,” said UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet.
Nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide are unwanted and more than 60% of them may end in abortion, the UNFPA said.
He noted that the United States -along with 178 other countries- endorsed a 1994 program that “recognized how deadly unsafe abortions are and urged all countries to provide life-saving post-abortion care, regardless of abortion’s legal status.”
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a ruling Friday pushed by its conservative majority, ended the constitutional protections for abortion contained in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Roughly half of U.S. states are poised to ban the abortion.
Former President Donald Trump cemented the conservative majority on the Supreme Court by appointing three justices during his four-year term.
The Trump administration has also led a push at the United Nations against promoting sexual and reproductive rights and women’s health because it sees that as code for abortion. He opposed long-agreed international language in UN resolutions.
Trump cut UNFPA funding because it “supports or participates in the management of a coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization program.”
The UN said that was an inaccurate perception. Trump’s successor, President Joe Biden, has restored the funding.