Ipas strongly condemns the latest attack by the Trump administration to restrict access to abortion. By sponsoring the “Geneva Consensus Declaration,” the U.S. is determined to lead a coalition of illiberal countries to reject established human rights.
“This administration is out of touch with the needs of women,” Gillian Kane, Ipas senior policy advisor, told the Washington Post.
Everyone, no matter where they live, must have the right and ability to determine their own reproductive future, including the right to have an abortion.
This non-binding declaration, which insists there is no international right to abortion, only serves to accentuate existing gender and health inequities and to deny people, particularly marginalized people—including women of color, young people and members of the LGBTQA+ community—access to essential health care.
That the U.S. would push this declaration during the COVID-19 pandemic is particularly egregious. We know that in times of crisis, women and girls are at an increased risk of unplanned pregnancy and unsafe abortion.
“The United States has failed at consensus and coalition building. There are 193 UN member states and they’ve got 31…none of the people on the list could care less about women. It’s a failure of diplomacy,” said Kane to the Guardian.