Abortion Extremists Complain to Organization of American States

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 24 (C-Fam) At a hearing last week, abortion advocates complained to the human rights body of the Organization of American States about the U.S. Supreme Court overturning a right to abortion in the United States.

Astrid Ackerman of the Center for Reproductive Rights said, “The Supreme Court took away a fundamental right paving the way for a regime of forced birth and forced parenthood.” The Staff Attorney at the world’s leading pro-abortion law firm said that the Dobbs decision “undid nearly 50 years of precedent protecting the constitutional right to abortion.”

The Dobbs decision caused a “cataclysmic regression on abortion,” said Rachana Desai Martin, Chief Government and External Relations Officer at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She claimed this has made the U.S. an outlier in the global trend toward liberalizing abortion. Rachana said that by eliminating the right to abortion the U.S. now forces women to be pregnant.

Monica Simpson, “a black, queer woman” who runs something called Sister Song, said the fight for abortion access is a fight against systems of white supremacy and the patriarchy. She said U.S. history and tradition are deeply rooted in racism, patriarchy, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. Simpson offered a laundry list of groups she says have complaints about access to abortion, “indigenous and other people of color, people with disabilities, those living in rural areas, young people, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and people with limited financial resources face significant disparities in access to sexual and reproductive health.”

Witnesses said the U.S. must “align its laws with international and regional human rights standards.” Though these claims are merely the opinions of experts and expert bodies and have no international obligation, the U.S. government representatives said that “the U.S. government is addressing the status of sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

Jody Morse, a deputy associate attorney general at the Department of Justice said the U.S. government is monitoring state laws and enforcement actions that threaten “federal protections of reproductive rights.” Jody said the department will not hesitate to take legal action including by filing affirmative suits, statements of interest, or by intervening in private party litigation.

Melanie Fontes Rainer from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said: “As we continue this work, HHS and the Biden-Harris Administration are committed to taking action to defend reproductive rights and ensure women have access to the full range of reproductive healthcare that is consistent with federal law and includes abortion.”

Melanie said that HHS secretary Becerra “made clear that this Administration and HHS will use the full extent of our legal authority […] to enforce protections for individuals who seek emergency care including when that care is abortion.”

Pro-abortion advocates and the U.S. government, including representatives from the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States and from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said six times in the hearing that “health care includes abortion.”

Melanie Fontes Rainer concluded: “President Biden says that he protects access to healthcare, all health care, and that includes abortion.” Not only abortion, but Biden recently said that health care is supporting LGBTQI+’s access to health care and preventing “conversion therapy.”

View online at: https://c-fam.org/friday_fax/abortion-extremists-complain-to-organization-of-american-states/

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