What a difference a year makes. Last summer, the Obama administration not only supported a text at the U.N. Human Rights Council that included a call for access to “safe abortion where such services are permitted by national law” but also co-sponsored it, despite not then being a member of the Geneva-based body.
On Thursday, when this year’s version of the resolution came around for a vote again, the Trump administration rejected the abortion reference, reminding the HRC that key international documents drawn up in the 1990s did not create a “right” to abortion.
The broader resolution, dealing with eliminating violence against women, was adopted without a vote, but not before Jason Mack, a member of the United States’ U.N. contingent, distanced the U.S. from the paragraph containing the abortion reference.
The section in question includes “safe abortion where such services are permitted by national law” among a list of “quality comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services” which countries’ health services should provide.
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