Today sees the announcement of a devastating roll-back of abortion rights in the US. The Supreme Court has rejected the constitutional right to abortion. This means that individual states will determine whether abortion is legal or not. 26 states are expected to act on this ruling to enact severe restrictions on abortion access. Access to abortion will be seriously impacted, especially for those on low incomes, for Black women, ethnic minorities, and other marginalised groups.
This dramatic move will endanger the reproductive rights of millions of women and others who need abortions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 40 million women live in US states which are hostile to abortion access.
As a global abortion funder, we know only too well the impact that US politics has on global discourse and decision-making around reproductive rights. Many SAAF grantee partners have told us that anti-choice rhetoric from the US has spread to their own countries. Others have lost funding due to the US ‘Global Gag Rule’ which prohibits aid funding going to organisations which support access to safe, legal abortion.
Along with over 100 of our global partners, SAAF has signed this statement calling for all governments to recognise abortion as essential health care, and as a human right.
Attacks against reproductive freedom are attacks on democracy and international human rights standards, on individual freedoms and the right to privacy, and they set back progress towards gender equality.
Global statement condemning the US Supreme Court decision