abortion rights

• January 31, 2021

Fulfilling promises that he made in his 2020 election campaign, President Joe Biden restored United States contributions to the United Nations Population Fund on Jan. 28. Through another executive order, he also overturned crippling US aid restrictions worldwide that had been demanded by anti-abortion lobbies. The Mexico City policy restrictions — also known as …

Gender Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, US-UN Relations, Women

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The US Raises Its UN Profile, but Not Its Support

Barbara Crossette

• January 25, 2020

The naming of Jonathan Moore, a senior United States Foreign Service officer, to the position of Acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, signals that in the United Nations’ 75th year, the Trump administration is getting serious. The move doesn’t mean that the US is increasing support for the organization, of course, or …

Gender Violence, US-UN Relations

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TAKE A LOOK

Global Abortion Laws, Split on a Clear North-South Divide

Barbara Crossette

• July 17, 2019

The most liberal laws on abortion are found in the richest industrial countries. Does that matter? Advocates for reproductive health care say yes, because the abortion gap is often a bellwether indicating that health care for women in many developing countries offers few or no reproductive choices or respect for reproductive rights. The issue …

Gender Violence, Health and Population, Take a Look

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WORLDVIEWS

US Abortion Restrictions Violate Women’s Human Rights

Serra Sippel and Akila Radhakrishnan

• March 14, 2019

Every year, 25 million women across the world are forced to obtain unsafe abortions. The United States, through its foreign policy, is deeply complicit in the violation of these women’s right to life and equality under international law. International human-rights frameworks guard against these violations and hold the US and other countries accountable. The International …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Was the US a Bad Host at the UN Women’s Conference?

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• March 25, 2017

The annual women’s conference at the United Nations may have encountered severe weather on its second day, when a blizzard swept through the region and events had to be canceled at the UN, but the real storm originated with the actions of the host country, the United States. Indeed, the role that the US …

US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women

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A New Commission to Focus on Women’s Rights Gaps in the Global Goals

Barbara Crossette

• January 11, 2016

A respected medical journal and a leading American population research and policy organization have teamed up to create a commission to fill gaps and turn vague promises in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into real gains for women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. The initiative, sponsored by the London-based journal The Lancet …

Health and Population, LGBT, SDGs, Women

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US Policy Denies Emergency Abortion Globally for War Rape Victims

Barbara Crossette

• July 30, 2015

In 1973, Jesse Helms, a newly elected United States senator and an ideologue contemptuous of the United Nations, dismissive of international treaties and completely devoid of compassion for the world’s poor, put his name on an amendment to the landmark 1961 United States Foreign Assistance Act banning any use of US funds to support …

Gender Violence, Women

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As Abortion Rights Expand in Some Regions, Others Absorb Setbacks

Dulcie Leimbach

• September 21, 2014

Even as more countries have expanded the rights of women to safe, legal abortions in the last 20 years, some countries — particularly certain areas in the United States and in Central America — have rolled back such rights with equal intensity by imposing tighter restrictions. The issue of abortion, embedded in the …