Following advocacy from the Center and partners, a UN body urged the United States to ensure abortion access and culturally respectful maternal health care. The U.S. Department of Defense announced it will provide travel and transportation allowances to servicemembers who need abortion services, and the Center participated in new studies on reproductive health and rights in response to the war in Ukraine and recent changes to abortion laws in India. Read more below.
Center staff joined a delegation of Black and Indigenous leaders in Geneva, Switzerland to hold the U.S. accountable for human rights violations. Following this advocacy, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued a report urging the United States to ensure abortion access and culturally respectful maternal health care in efforts to eliminate racial discrimination. The CERD engaged U.S. government officials in dialogue about these violations after hearing from advocates about the grave inequities in maternal health care and outcomes, as well as the profound and disparate impact of abortion restrictions on communities of color.
This month, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced it would provide travel and transportation allowances for servicemembers and their dependents who need to travel for abortion services. The move comes after years of advocacy by the Center for Reproductive Rights and its coalition partners to improve access to abortion and other reproductive health care for servicemembers and veterans.
The escalation of the war in Ukraine has caused thousands of casualties and impacted access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). A study by the Regional Gender Task Force, which the Center played an active role in drafting, addresses key gender concerns including SRHR in the regional humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine. The report gives practical recommendations for governments, policymakers, donors, and humanitarian response actors.
In India, 800,000 unsafe abortions occur every year, with 10% resulting in maternal deaths. In 2021, the Parliament of India passed the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Act. The Amendment—which increases gestational limits, grounds, and procedures to access abortion care—was passed in response to demands to make safe, quality abortion more accessible. In a new factsheet, the Center provides details and analyses of the key changes in the Amendment.
