Press Releases

MARCH 28, 2024 — The Global Justice Center, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Ipas — in partnership with Foley Hoag LLP — today filed an amicus brief in Idaho vs. United States, the United States Supreme Court case considering the enforcement of Idaho’s near-total abortion ban. The brief argues that Idaho’s abortion law violates the human rights of pregnant Idahoans. Citing human rights treaties that the US has ratified, including those covering civil and political rights, freedom from torture, and racial discrimination, it describes how Idaho's abortion law violates the United States' legal obligations to provide safe and legal abortion services. In particular, the brief cites human rights obligations during emergencies governed by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. “Nothing less than the fundamental human rights of the people of Idaho are at stake in this case,” said Grant Shubin, Senior Legal Advisor at the Global Justice Center. “This abortion ban is a blatant violation of the rights to life, health, non-discrimination, freedom from torture, and privacy. And the violations are far from theoretical — day after day, pregnant people in Idaho are facing life-threatening cruelties while their doctors operate under fear of prosecution.” The brief also argues that Idaho’s abortion law will endanger the lives, health, and well-being of pregnant Idahoans — especially those from marginalized communities. It cites evidence from other US states and countries with similar abortion restrictions showing that such laws exacerbate preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, despite any narrow exception for life-saving care.  Risks to the health of pregnant people in Idaho in emergency situations have already been documented. In one case, a physician described having to send a pregnant patient home while experiencing a miscarriage because, without absolute certainty regarding the pregnancy outcome, the physician feared that Idaho’s abortion law prevented them from providing immediate care to manage the miscarriage in the emergency department. The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in Idaho vs. United States next month.

On Sunday, the Global Justice Center will mark 50 years since the passage of the Helms Amendment, a United States foreign policy that restricts the funding of abortion services abroad. The amendment was passed on December 17, 1973 — just months after Roe v. Wade was decided by the United States Supreme Court. Despite the language of the amendment only prohibiting US foreign aid funding of abortion as a “method of family planning,” Helms has been implemented as a total ban on abortion services. Reproductive rights activists have long urged US presidents to take executive action clarifying that Helms allows funding of abortion care abroad in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment of the pregnant person, including in humanitarian settings. According to a Guttmacher Institute analysis, there could be approximately 19 million fewer unsafe abortions and 17,000 fewer maternal deaths each year if Helms were repealed. Akila Radhakrishnan, president of the Global Justice Center, issued the following statement: “Five decades of death is the only way to summarize the legacy of the Helms Amendment. It is a primary cause of countless maternal deaths due to unsafe abortions around the world. It has fueled the destruction of critical healthcare networks as providers have been forced to make an untenable decision between losing essential funding or offering comprehensive medical care. Helms is nothing short of a human rights catastrophe that 10 presidential administrations have allowed to fester. “Let’s be clear: the Helms Amendment is a violation of the human rights to health, life, non-discrimination, freedom from torture, and more. The denial of abortion as such has been recognized by everyone from medical experts to international human rights bodies. Yet, five decades later, Helms and its legacy of immense harm is ignored by US politicians, including those who claim to support reproductive rights. “The Helms Amendment is the foundation of all abortion restrictions in US foreign policy, including the Global Gag Rule. Limiting its harmful impact — and ultimately, its repeal — must be a top priority for both the US reproductive rights movement and any lawmakers who are serious about positioning the United States as a leader on human rights. Because as long as Helms remains in place, the United States should be seen as a pariah state when it comes to reproductive rights.”

The Human Rights Committee today called on the United States to take all necessary measures — at the federal, state, and local levels — to “provide legal, effective, safe and confidential access to abortion” in line with its international human rights obligations. The committee further recommended the US harmonize its laws and policies with World Health Organization guidelines, which call for the full decriminalization of abortion and that it be made available on request, without grounds-based or gestational restrictions. The Committee is a body of independent experts that monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the US ratified in 1992. All countries party to the ICCPR are periodically reviewed by the Committee; the US was last reviewed in 2014. Today’s recommendations on abortion rights came as part of the Committee’s “concluding observations” following its October 17-18 review of US compliance with ICCPR. The Committee also issued recommendations on other issues where the committee observed that the US is falling short of its treaty obligations, including on mass incarceration, indigenous rights, Guantanamo Bay, gun violence, LGBTQ rights, and more. Tess Graham, legal advisor with the Global Justice Center, issued the following statement: “The United States is in the midst of an urgent human rights crisis, and the Human Rights Committee is just the latest international institution to recognize it. Since the Dobbs ruling last year, human rights experts from across the international system have raised the alarm. Millions are living without access to abortion or maternity care, and conditions worsen by the day. “The ICCPR protects some of our most fundamental human rights — the right to life, to non-discrimination, and to freedom from torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. The abortion rights crisis imperils all of these rights. Numerous women have nearly died after being denied abortions in the last year; doctors fear prosecution for providing essential care. And fundamentally, millions of people have been robbed of their bodily autonomy by the tightening web of abortion restrictions. In short, the US is manifestly failing to uphold its obligations under the ICCPR. “Many of today’s recommendations concern a post-Dobbs United States. But US abortion policy has never met human rights standards. Around the world, countries are bolstering abortion access while the US stands nearly alone in its regression. If the US wishes to end its pariah state status and become the leader on human rights it so often claims to be, abortion must be seen for what is: a fundamental human right.”

NEW YORK — On Saturday, the Global Justice will join abortion rights advocates in the United States and around the world in recognizing the first anniversary of the US Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The Dobbs ruling ended nearly five decades of constitutional protections for abortion care in the United States. The recent briefing paper “Human Rights Crisis: Abortion in the United States After Dobbs” offers the first investigation into widespread violations of human rights occurring as a consequence of the ruling. The paper was published by the Global Justice Center, Human Rights Watch, Pregnancy Justice, National Birth Equity Collaborative, Physicians for Human Rights, and Foley Hoag. Elena Sarver, Senior Legal Adviser at the Global Justice Center, issued the following statement: “The last year has been nothing less than a ceaseless catastrophe for pregnant people in the United States. Tens of millions live in states where abortion is either heavily restricted or completely unavailable. Patients with dangerous or nonviable pregnancies are being turned away from hospitals and forced to endure cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. And doctors are caught in the middle of it all, forced to choose between their patient’s health and their own livelihoods. “This is a full-blown human rights crisis, and it’s time we treated it that way. Abortion bans violate our rights to health, life, privacy, to be free from torture, and more. Yet for too long, despite efforts to promote human rights abroad, US policymakers have denied these human rights protections to their own people. The experience of countries like Ireland, Peru, and Colombia shows us that human rights can be harnessed to achieve historic advances for abortion rights. “Yet despite the pain we’re seeing around the country, abortion rights advocates are successfully fighting back in many states. It’s critical that we support these efforts and feed them into the international movement to expand abortion access. By this time next year, let’s make abortion accessible and regulated solely as medical care in the United States.”

More than 190 organizations and individuals, including health practitioners and human rights experts, today sent a letter to United Nations experts in response to the United States Supreme Court decision that repealed the constitutional right to abortion. The letter documents how abortion restrictions imposed in the wake of the court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization have deprived women, girls, and persons capable of pregnancy of their human rights to life, health, privacy, liberty, freedom from torture, and more. It goes on to argue that the Dobbs ruling puts the United States in breach of obligations under several legally-binding international treaties it has ratified, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention against Torture. In addition to its call to action, the letter includes original research as well as testimony from physicians around the country. The full letter and list of signatories is here. Dr. Christine Ryan, Legal Director at the Global Justice Center, issued the following statement: “The protections of Roe had long eroded before the court’s ruling, but Dobbs put to rest any doubt of the United States’ failure to meet its human rights obligations. Decades of binding treaties have firmly established abortion as a human right. Now that the violation of this right is clear to all, the international community has a responsibility to act to hold the U.S. accountable.” Christina Hioureas, Partner at Foley Hoag and Chair of the firm’s United Nations Practice Group, the law firm acting for the coalition, issued the following statement: “Dobbs is the nail in the coffin on reproductive freedom in the United States. The consequences of Dobbs is that women, girls and persons capable of pregnancy across the United States are being deprived of critical access to health care and autonomy over their bodies and their lives. Simply put, women and girls will die as a result of this decision. The criminalization of access to reproductive health implicates the United States’ obligations under international law and is, thus, a matter of grave concern for the international community as a whole.” Payal Shah, Director of the Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones at Physicians for Human Rights, issued the following statement: “The Dobbs decision has placed a target on the backs of pregnant patients and health care providers. The criminalization of abortion in many U.S. states has resulted in health care workers being mandated to act in complicity with violations of their patients’ rights, or to face imprisonment, professional sanction, fines, or harassment. As clinicians in this letter and around the country have shared, laws criminalizing abortion care will increase health disparities and impact the provision of health care across many specializations, from emergency medical care to family medicine to oncology and rheumatology. These harms will be most profoundly felt by Black, Indigenous, and low-income women. The international community, including UN Special Rapporteurs, must condemn this egregious rollback of human rights and affirm the U.S.’ obligation to ensure abortion rights.” Lauren Wranosky, Research and Program Associate at Pregnancy Justice, issued the following statement: “The Dobbs decision abandoned the constitutional right to abortion, violated U.S. legal obligations under treaties such as ICCPR, and exposed the fact that Roe was never enough. Many will continue to be jailed, convicted, and sentenced to prison for having abortions, experiencing pregnancy losses, or giving birth to healthy babies. This destroys families, inflicts trauma, and targets the most vulnerable by replacing healthcare with criminalization. We know this humanitarian crisis will only get worse, and we demand that the U.S. government join international peers as a leader in securing reproductive justice for all.” Annerieke Smaak Daniel, Women’s Rights Researcher at Human Rights Watch, issued the following statement: “Abortion is a form of health care needed more frequently by women of color, especially Black women, than white women in the US. Abortion restrictions compound economic, social, and geographic barriers to health care, including contraception, disproportionately impacting Black women’s ability to access the care we need. The US federal government is not meeting its human rights obligation to ensure access to abortion and to address and eliminate structural racism and discrimination in the US, and the impact on the health and rights of Black women is clear.”

NEW YORK  — The Global Justice Center today joins abortion rights advocates across the United States by commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade, which established the constitutional right to abortion. Today’s anniversary comes just months after Roe was overturned in June 2022 by the Supreme Court. This ruling was the culmination of decades of work by the anti-abortion movement that began immediately after Roe was decided in January 1973. Akila Radhakrishnan, president of the Global Justice Center, issued the following statement: “We join all of our allies in the struggle for abortion rights today in mourning the end of Roe v. Wade on its 50th anniversary. Everyone in the United States owes a great debt to the 1973 ruling and the movement responsible for it. But, of course, Roe was always the floor, not the ceiling. Millions, particularly marginalized populations, were denied access to abortion in the decades that followed. “Thanks to the anti-abortion movement that mobilized immediately after Roe, the story of abortion access in the United States since 1973 has been one of steady regression. Increasingly severe restrictions on abortion care, both at the state level and nationally, were imposed and upheld by courts over the intervening decades. The promise of Roe was denied to entire generations. “Now is the time to build a new, inclusive foundation for abortion access grounded in universal human rights. From Ireland to Columbia, many countries around the world are beginning to do just that. The United States can join them and create a world where bodily autonomy is a lived reality for all.”

NEW YORK — The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today called on the United States to take all necessary measures — at the federal and state level — to provide safe, legal, and effective access to abortion in line with its international human rights obligations. The recommendation came as part of the committee’s “concluding observations” following its review of US compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which the US ratified in 1994. For more on US obligations on reproductive rights under ICERD, see this factsheet. The concluding observations specifically noted the recent Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, citing its “profound disparate impact on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of racial and ethnic minorities.” The committee questioned the US government in Geneva on August 11 and 12. During this session, it raised US abortion restrictions numerous times. The members were particularly concerned about disproportionate access to safe abortion for Black, brown, and indigenous women, as well as the prosecution of those seeking abortions post-Dobbs. Dr. Christine Ryan, legal director at the Global Justice Center, issued the following statement: “Make no mistake, the international community put the United States on notice today for the racist impacts of its recent regression on abortion rights. Even before the conservative majority on the Supreme Court overruled the constitutional right to abortion, they had dismantled abortion access for decades. Black, brown & indigenous women seeking abortion faced profound and disproportionate obstacles. After Dobbs, they’re facing nothing short of a gross and systemic human rights crisis. “Today’s recommendation on abortion is well within the committee’s mandate. ICERD prohibits racial discrimination in access to healthcare and requires the elimination of laws that perpetuate racial discrimination. Abortion restrictions in the US violate these measures at every turn. Forced travel for abortion is more difficult for women of color. Coerced pregnancy is more dangerous. And criminalization will target them at higher rates. “This is also a critical moment of international accountability for the United States. For too long, the US government has failed to fully implement the very human rights framework it helped create. The international community should take every opportunity to interrogate the state of human rights in the US and commit to reversing this damaging trend.”

More than 100 international and domestic organizations today sent a letter to the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) urging them to end overly restrictive interpretations of law that block the use of foreign assistance funds for abortion services in any circumstance. The Helms Amendment prohibits foreign assistance funding for abortion services as a “method of family planning.” This means abortion services can be funded in cases of rape, incest and life endangerment. However, USAID and the State Department have never funded abortion services in these contexts. Elena Sarver, legal advisor at the Global Justice Center, issued the following statement: “We’ve said it for years: the president can end a devastating human rights violation with the stroke of a pen. For too long, US presidents have failed to take action to implement exceptions that permit funding of abortion care abroad in certain cases. The Biden administration can take immediate action to change that now. “As the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid worldwide, the US is in a unique position to deliver healthcare to those who need it most. But as a result of its incorrect interpretation of the Helms Amendment, it is routinely denying critical abortion care to victims of rape, incest, and in cases of life endangerment. In order to live up to its stated commitment to reproductive rights, the Biden administration should clarify these exceptions and implement funding for abortion in these cases.”

NEW YORK — The United States Supreme Court today repealed the constitutional right to abortion. The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization allows Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban to remain in place and explicitly overturns decades of precedent set by the Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions that prevented states from banning abortions before viability. Abortion is likely to become illegal immediately in roughly half of US states. Other states are expected to further limit abortion access, while some have taken steps to expand access in anticipation of the court’s ruling. Akila Radhakrishnan, president of the Global Justice Center, issued the following statement: “Today will go down as one of the darkest days for human rights in American history. With the stroke of a pen, this court has barred millions from access to a medical service that the World Health Organization has deemed a ‘crucial part of healthcare.’ The repercussions for bodily autonomy and gender equality in the US will be devastating. “Though decades of attacks have deeply eroded the protections of Roe, and safe abortion has for too long been inaccessible to many, today’s ruling puts the United States firmly in violation of its human rights obligations. Around the world, recognition of the right to abortion access is sweeping. Ireland, Colombia, Benin, and countless other countries have taken steps in recent years to expand abortion access. Make no mistake: the US is now a global pariah on abortion, and accordingly, gender equality. “This is certainly the catastrophic day we all feared. But it is also a day we’ve long prepared for. While we fight state-by-state to secure abortions for anyone who needs them, there are actions President Biden and Congress can take now to protect the human right to abortion. With stakes this high, each day of inaction is an attack on every person now living in a country without bodily autonomy.”