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Endorsing organizations respectfully request that the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs remove the harmful and redundant reiterations of the Helms Amendment in the FY 2021 appropriations bill.

The Nigerian military has continued to advance, recovering many of the women and girls captured by Boko Haram. It is thought that Boko Haram originally kidnapped over 2,000 women and girls. This week, the military is said to have rescued several hundred, most recently 234 from the Sambisa forest. There are reports that the military has secured all of the Boko Haram strongholds, though it must be noted that the media has often exaggerated their successes. It is unclear whether the Chibok girls are among the rescued women. Grievously, it is thought that the school girls may have already been killed. Hundreds of women and girls have been forcibly impregnated by Boko Haram. Unofficially, 214 of the recently rescued girls have been reported pregnant after facing horrific circumstances of sexual slavery and violence. Organizations like the UNFPA are working as best they can to provide for the women, with a spokesperson saying, “We look after them and ensure they get antenatal care and that they deliver properly and that they even get cesarean section when necessary.” While UNFPA are doing good work helping these pregnant women and girls, they are hamstrung, by a decades old US policy, from providing the full range of medical services these women and girls require. Women and girls who are raped in areas of conflict suffer from extensive physical and psychological injuries, making pregnancy and delivery dangerous. Several studies have found that pregnancy from rape in wartime compounds the physical, psychological and socials consequences of the survivors. While experts have acknowledged that pregnancy from rape can exacerbate the consequences of the rape, little has been done to actually address and resolve this problem. The vast majority of women who become pregnant from rape in conflict lack access to safe abortion services. These women could resort to non-sterile or non-medical methods, which can lead to scarring, infection, sterilization, or death. The Geneva Conventions guarantees that war victims receive all the medical care required by their condition, for women and girls raped in armed conflict, that medical care includes the option of abortion. In 1973, Senator Jesse Helms passed the Helms Amendment, which bans the sending of any US foreign aid money to any organization that performs or even discusses abortion services. Four decades later, this misguided amendment is still in place and having very real consequences for the aid organizations providing services to the brave women and girls rescued in Nigeria. GJC president Janet Benshoof says, “war rape victims are honorable heroines and victims of war crimes and they should be protected, honored, and respected.” For women and girls kidnapped and forcibly impregnated by terrorist groups, it is now more urgent than ever for President Obama to overturn the Helms Amendment, so that these survivors can have access to the full medical care they desperately need.

Today, during the Universal Periodic Review of United States, several member states of the UN Human Rights Council made statements condemning the anti-abortion restrictions that the US places on foreign aid, such as the Helms Amendment. The UN Human Rights Council is responsible for monitoring the human rights records of the member states; every four years each country is reviewed and presented with recommendations on how to comply with their human rights duties. The effects of Helms are can be seen in conflict zones around the world, most recently with the rescue of 214 pregnant Nigerian women from Boko Haram. The issue of comprehensive medical care has gained traction in recent months. As a result, today the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium and France orally recommended that the United States work to ensure access to safe abortions around the world and limit the negative impact of the Helms Amendment. War rape is an illegal tactic of war, constituting torture or genocide, and denial of medical care allows the perpetuation of those crimes. The constraints of the Helms Amendment deny women and children access to safe abortions, and restrict aid agencies from even providing information about abortion services. In September 2014, the Global Justice Center submitted a report to the UPR, highlighting the ways in which constraints against women’s reproductive rights are incompatible with the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In April 2015, GJC traveled throughout Europe advocating for countries to use the UPR process to question the current anti-abortion restrictions the US imposes. In addition to the five oral questions, written recommendations were also submitted, requiring a response and justification, should the United States continue to uphold the Helms Amendment. The US government has three months to formulate a response. It is clear that the Obama Administration has a responsibility and urgent duty to remedy these violations. Click here to read more.

At the 2nd Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United States, five countries- Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom- urged the U.S. to reconsider its stance on the Helms Amendment. This amendment makes it illegal for any U.S. foreign aid to be directed to abortion services. This leaves many women and girls who are victims of war rape no choice but to carry the child of their rapist or unsafely try to abort it themselves. The Helms Amendment impinges upon the rights of women and girls in conflict, and is in violation of the Convention against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Geneva Conventions. The UN Security Council, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, countries and organizations around the world have recognized the gravity of the Helms Amendment and the necessity for clarification so that women and girls in conflict can have access to the medical care that they need. Out of the 293 women and girls who were rescued from Boko Haram in Nigeria, one-third of them are pregnant. 214 of these women and girls are being denied proper care, and this is the fate of many others around the world. The Obama administration has 3 months to respond to these charges and overturn the Helms Amendment and its abortion ban. GJC encourages President Obama to respond to these suggestions as soon as possible, as the end of the 3-month time frame for U.S. response to UPR recommendations, falls on August 12th, 2015. August 12th is the anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, and is also the inspiration for GJC’s August 12th Campaign to “Ensure the Right to Safe Abortion for Women and Girls Raped in Armed Conflict.” Pressure is mounting and the clock is ticking. Will the U.S. overturn the Helms Amendment by the deadline, and show the world that it is upholding its obligations under the Geneva Conventions? Click here to read more.

Today, more than 50 human rights groups from over 22 different countries took action on behalf of women and girls raped in conflict by sending a letter to President Obama pressuring him to issue an executive order that would lift the Helms abortion ban. Among the organizations that have signed the letter are the Global Justice Center, Amnesty International, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Human Rights Watch, and the World Organization Against Torture. Groups have also signed onto the letter from conflict countries directly impacted by the abortion ban, including the West African Bar Association, the Iraq Women’s Network, the Syrian women’s League, and the Nigerian Medical Women’s Association. This letter is a testament to the pressure that is mounting on the United States to affirm the rights of female war rape victims as mandated under the Geneva Conventions.

Forty-three years ago today, the Supreme Court deemed abortion a constitutionally protected right for women in the United States in Roe v. Wade, taking a huge step forward for women’s equality. Since then, anti-choice lawmakers at the federal and state-level have been working concertedly to render this right meaningless by restricting access to abortion. The Guttmacher Institute recently found that states have enacted 1,074 abortion restrictions since 1973. One of the longest-standing restrictions is the Helms Amendments, which has been in place since December 1973 and prevents the use of U.S. foreign aid to pay for abortion services, even in the case of rape, incest or life endangerment. Shutting down federal funding for abortion services exacerbates one of the longest-standing barriers to abortion access: the cost. As anti-choice lawmakers have known for the past four decades, if the right to abortion can’t be eliminated, the next best thing is to make abortion access practically impossible. The Helms Amendment impacts some of the most vulnerable women and girls in the world; those raped in war. Through the continued imposition of the Helms Amendment without exceptions, the U.S. is denying abortion access to women enslaved and raped by groups like ISIS and Boko Haram, and to girls as young as 12 raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The U.S. is laudably the world’s largest provider of development and humanitarian aid. Through this aid, the U.S. funds a variety of initiatives around the world, including health care services in conflict zones. But when girls and women present at these U.S. funded health centers for medical care, while they may have access to a wide range of services, safe abortion is not one of them. Insultingly, if these women seek out an unsafe abortion and have medical consequences, they can go to a U.S. funded health care provider for post-abortion care, but only after they have put their own life in danger. Not only is this policy illegal under international law, its consequences are dire and often deadly. Yesterday, in a receiving line at a town hall in Iowa, Hillary Clinton was asked by an activist whether she would “help fix the Helms Amendment” as president, to which she gave a resounding yes. There has been no stronger advocate of women’s rights and abortion rights in the current presidential campaign than Clinton. Rightly framing abortion as a class and racial issue, she’s drawn attention to the fact that making abortion unaffordable essentially renders the right to it meaningless, in particular for low-income women. However, Ms. Clinton, as a part of the Obama Administration, had ample opportunity to act on the Helms Amendment but failed to do so. During her tenure as Secretary of State, the Helms Amendment’s impact of women raped in war was raised with the Obama Administration multiple times, including during the 2010 Universal Periodic Review of the United States. However, despite the fact that President Obama can take steps through executive action to limit the impact of the Helms Amendment, he and his Administration have continually failed to take any action—to the detriment of countless women around the world. Like Roe & the U.S. Constitution, a variety of international instruments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Geneva Conventions, the Convention against Torture, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, enshrine and protect rights to abortion for women around the world. However, as long as the U.S. remains the world’s largest donor of development and humanitarian aid, abortion restrictions on foreign assistance, such as the Helms Amendment, will continue to impede the ability of women around the world to exercise their right to abortion services. Today, as we reflect on the legacy of Roe, and sit on pins and needles as we anticipate the arguments and Supreme Court decision in Whole Women’s Health v. Cole, let us also reflect on the idea that the right to abortion is nothing without the protection of actual access to these services, including through public funding. And that policymakers in Washington D.C. shouldn’t be the reason that women are unable to exercise their rights around the world. Akila Radhakrishnan is the Legal Director at the Global Justice Center. She has published articles in The Atlantic, Women Under Siege, RH Reality Check, Ms. Magazine, the Denver Journal of International Law and Policy and Reproductive Laws for the Twenty-First Century.

Today the White House is holding the first “United State of Women Summit“, focused on celebrating what the US has achieved on gender equality and what more there is to do. One item not on the agenda is the Helms Amendment, a decades-old amendment that prevents any US foreign aid from going to any organization that performs abortions, even those helping women who have been raped in war. For the past six years, governments and international bodies around the world have recognized that this US policy must be changed to be in compliance with international law. Despite this advocacy and repeated calls from NGO’s, heads of state and the UN, the Obama Administration has remained silent on this issue. Timeline of GJC August 12th Campaign, named for the Anniversary of the Geneva Conventions: April 2010: GJC builds support from governments, civil society, and within the UN System for a shadow report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council for the first Universal Periodic Review of the US, focusing on how the US’s anti-abortion restrictions on humanitarian aid violates the Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law (IHL). This shadow report was included in a summary compiled by the OHCHR for the Human Rights Council. November 2010: Norway cites GJC and becomes the first country to recommend the US’s removal of its anti-abortion restrictions on humanitarian aid. GJC advocated to the US that they accept Norway’s recommendation and that Obama creates an executive order removing the anti-abortion ban. January 2011: GJC drafts an executive order on the need to remove anti-abortion prohibitions in order to comply with the Geneva Conventions, namely, Article 3. February 2011: GJC begins a letter writing project representing over 3,500 groups globally to write letters to President Obama in support of an executive order addressing anti-abortion humanitarian aid prohibitions. March 2011: The New York Bar Association, representing over 22,000 lawyers, wrote the first advocacy letter to President Obama asking him to lift anti-abortion aid prohibitions. Following the New York Bar Association, numerous human rights and legal organizations, such as Amnesty International, the World Organization Against Torture, FIDH, the Paris Bar Association, the Norwegian Bar Association, wrote additional letters. August 12, 2011: GJC’s August 12th Campaign officially begins. September 2011: The New York Times Editorial Board publishes the first of four editorials in support of the August 12th Campaign. March 2012: The European Parliament adopts a resolution on equality between women and men, calling for access to abortion services for those raped in armed conflict. The resolution urges EU humanitarian aid to separate itself from US humanitarian aid in order to provide abortion services. March 2012: The Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament, Alexander Alvaro and Edward McMillan-Scott, write to President Obama urging the US to lift its anti-abortion restrictions. August 2012: The Socialist International Women’s Congress, led by the Labor party women from Norway, adopt a resolution acknowledging rape as a weapon of war and calling for international aid organizations to provide abortions to women who have been raped in conflict. January 2013: The UK cites GJC’s advocacy when announcing a historic change to its abortion policy: acknowledging that women and girls raped in armed conflict have absolute legal rights to abortions as mandated by the Geneva Conventions. Lord Anthony Lester of the UK describes the routine denial of abortions to women and girls raped in war as “barbaric.” March 2013: For the first time in history, the UN Secretary-General recommends that aid to girls and women raped in armed conflict must include abortion services for an unwanted pregnancy resulting from rape. March 2013: Members of the European Parliament send a letter to President Obama, requesting that the President lift abortion restrictions placed on US aid to war rape victims, as it violates the Geneva Conventions. April 2013: Professor Louise Doswald-Beck, leading expert on international humanitarian law and former head of the ICRC legal division, called on President Obama to end US abortion restrictions in a letter to him in support of the August 12th Campaign. April 2013: The Netherlands affirms that abortion can be a necessary medical procedure under international human rights law, which therefore must be provided regardless of national law. June 2013: The European Parliament adopts a second resolution urging humanitarian aid to be independent from US restrictions to ensure access to safe abortions. June 2013: The UN Security Council unanimously passes Resolution 2106, which calls for UN bodies and donor countries to provide non-discriminatory health services, including sexual and reproductive health. August 2013: The UN, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland, deliver a joint statement in support of safe abortion access for girls and women victim of war rape under international law and urge the international community to end impunity for sexual crimes in war. September 2013: For the first time, the UN Secretary-General links the provision of abortion services to rights under international humanitarian law in his annual report on women. October 2013: The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 2122 supporting abortion services for girls and women raped in armed conflict for the first time. Despite avoiding using the term “abortion,” its language makes clear that Member States and the UN must ensure that all options, including abortion, are given to women impregnated by war rape. April 25, 2014: Gérard Araud, the Ambassador of France to the United Nations, took a strong stance for the rights of women and girls raped in war to have access to safe abortion services during a Security Council Debate. June 2014: The UN Secretary-General publishes a Guidance Note on “Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence,” stating that reparations programs can include safe abortion services and mandated that legislation is needed to provide women and girls impregnated by war rape with a choice of safe and legal abortions. June 2014: The UK becomes the first country to recognize and implement policy stating that the Geneva Conventions mandates that medical care should be provided to women raped in war, and that abortions must be included in such care regardless of anti-abortion national law. August 12, 2014: Marking the 65th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, the GJC sends an open letter to President Obama reiterating that executive action should be taken to lift abortion restrictions on war rape victims. September 23, 2014: The UN Secretary-General in his 2014 Report on women, peace, and security made clear that Security Council 2122 mandates that war rape survivors must be provided with access to safe abortions “in a gender responsive and non-discriminatory manner and in accordance with international humanitarian law.” The specific language of this report was included due to GJC’s recommendations to UN Women. January 30, 2015: Abortion was referenced as part of the right to non-discriminatory treatment under international humanitarian law in an open debate on the protection of civilians in the Security Council. June 2015: The European Parliament adopts a resolution calling for access to abortion for women and girls victim of war rape. The language of the resolution references the Helms Amendment, the United States’ decades-old policy barring US funds going towards humanitarian aid groups that offers abortion services. July 2015: An international coalition of human rights, legal, medical, and religious groups sign a letter to President Obama urging him to issue an executive order lifting the ban and affirming the rights of female war rape victims to comprehensive medical care, including abortion, under the Geneva Conventions. August 2015: 81 House Democrats write a letter to Obama urging him to tell agencies that the Helms Amendment permits abortion services in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is endangered. The GJC writes a letter urging the Congress to reassess the limitations of the Helms amendment and to ensure abortion access to impregnated victims of war rape, even where local sovereign law does not permit it, in accordance with common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. September 2015: In its response to France’s recommendation at the Universal Periodic Review of the US by the UN Human Rights Council, the US indicated that they support “addressing the needs of women who have been victims of sexual violence in conflict situations,” opening the door for possible executive action on the Helms Amendment. February 2016: The European Union adopts its 2016 Budget with the first ever anti-Helms Amendment requiring all humanitarian entities funded by the EU to provide assistance in accordance with IHL without discrimination. Additionally, the budget maintains that EU funds “not be subject to restrictions imposed by other partner donors.” June 2016: The White House has still taken no action on this issue. TELL THE PRESIDENT TO ACT NOW.

Louise Doswald-Beck, the former Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Legal Division (ICRC), former Director of the University Centre for International Humanitarian Law (CUDIH) and former Secretary General of the International Commission of Jurists wrote to President Obama on how the US abortion prohibition attached to humanitarian aid violates the rights of women and girls raped in armed conflict under IHL, and is a form of torture. Download PDF

On March 7, 2013, the European Parliament issued an open letter to President Obama, urging him to lift US abortion restrictions on aid to war rape victims. The Global Justice Center’s August 12th Campaign challenges the denial of life-saving abortions to girls and women who are raped and impregnated in armed conflict, as a violation of the Geneva Conventions. This letter highlights the fact that the US “no abortion” clause negatively affects how aid from foreign governments can be administered because it is often pooled together. As a result, humanitarian aid organizations on the ground are often unable to provide medically-necessary abortions to girls and women who have endured the horrors of war rape. Click here to read the letter from the MEPs to President Obama.   Here is the press release issued by the MEPs: D66 Press Release Brussels, 7 March 2013 MEPs urge Obama to rescind US abortion ban for women raped in armed conflict In an open letter to United States President Barack Obama, Members of the European Parliament Working Group on Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS and Development (EPWG) urge the head of state to immediately lift US abortion restrictions on humanitarian aid for girls and women raped and impregnated in armed conflict. “Withholding war raped women the right to safe abortion as a result of US development aid policy is a form of violence against women and girls, priority theme at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York”, says Chair of the EPWG, Dutch Liberal Democrat Sophie in ‘t Veld. In ‘t Veld and colleagues have been campaigning for the EU and its Member States to no longer accept the US imposed ban. “Europe must speak up for those women, and urge our American friends and allies to immediately abolish the ban.” The US imposes a “no abortion” clause on its foreign aid, which in practice means that humanitarian organizations that receive US funding neither talk about nor provide safe abortions to victims of war rape. In ‘t Veld comments: “Rape is being used as a weapon of war, destroying lives, families and communities. Women victims are already punished enough and should not be denied the right to a safe termination of the resulting unwanted pregnancy.” Every year, tens of thousands of girls and women are raped during armed conflicts. More than two-thirds of conflict-related rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are gang rapes, one third of the victims are girls under the age of 18. Given that many girls and women in the DRC are raped in the context of sexual slavery, they incur the greatest risk of pregnancy. In ‘t Veld: “The fact that United States is the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid has enabled it to impose its policy on abortion on neutral organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross. The US should make a distinction between abortion as a means of family planning and termination of pregnancy as a medical necessity.”