Webinar Series – Conscience, Religion, & Belief in the Context of Abortion

Thanks to the worldwide trend of governments allowing individual healthcare providers and institutions to refuse the provision of abortion care based on conscience, religion, or belief, “conscientious objection” has become a leading barrier to abortion services. Notably, among countries with laws and policies regulating conscientious objection, 93% expressly allow such refusals of care.

United Nations human rights treaty bodies and World Health Organization guidance emphasize that no person should face barriers to abortion care due to conscientious objection by health service providers. Yet, research confirms that healthcare providers and institutions are increasingly using conscientious objection as the basis to refuse abortion care, creating a systemic issue that largely goes unsanctioned around the world.

Though conscientious objection has become a barrier to abortion care, abortion providers are increasingly seeing their work as based on their conscience, religion, and/or deeply held beliefs. Despite this, the development of human rights norms and standards, as well as research and advocacy, has primarily focused on the limits of conscientious objection, giving substantially less attention to the provision of abortion care and support as an expression of one’s conscience, religion, or beliefs.

GJC’s webinar series gathered human rights experts, advocates, and scholars to explore how issues of conscience, religion, and belief manifest in the context of abortion.