Biden Administration Restores Abortion to Human Rights Reports

By | November 11, 2021

WASHINGON, DC, November 12 (C-Fam) The U.S. Department of State is once again including a section on “reproductive rights” in its annual reports tracking the human rights records of other countries’. On November 4, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced that the 2020 reports, released earlier this year, have been updated with the new section.

The “reproductive rights” section in the reports was first included under former President Barack Obama, then removed by former President Donald Trump’s administration, provoking outrage among abortion activists, who called on current President Joe Biden to restore it. When the 2020 reports were published in March, Blinken promised the missing section would be provided as an addendum at a later date, and that it would be included in future years’ reports.

For abortion groups, using the State Department’s considerable influence to advance their agenda has been a high priority. Pro-abortion members of Congress have proposed legislation that would mandate the inclusion of the “reproductive rights” section, with explicit instructions to report “whether such country has adopted and enforced policies. . .to expand or restrict access to safe abortion services.”

The proposed bill also cites a general comment by the Human Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the U.S. has ratified. However, the comment, which asserts that abortion is a right under certain circumstances, is not binding, nor does it reflect the text of the treaty itself.

Unless the “Reproductive Rights are Human Rights Act” becomes law, the inclusion of a “reproductive rights” section in the reports is up to the current president to determine.

Abortion has never been accepted as a human right in any global negotiation, and no binding UN human rights treaty, regardless of whether the U.S. has ratified it, includes such a right. The Biden administration withdrew the U.S. from the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which reiterates that abortion is not a human right, although the State Department has not taken an official position explicitly saying that it is.

The Trump administration took several steps to distinguish between internationally accepted human rights and attempts by activists to insert controversial and contested elements into human rights frameworks. In addition to spearheading the Geneva Consensus Declaration, the State Department under former Secretary Mike Pompeo launched the Commission on Unalienable Rights to study how the human rights project developed and faces the risk of being co-opted.

Given the U.S.’s record of leadership on international human rights issues and extensive diplomatic presence around the world, the State Department’s annual country reports are an important source of information for advocates seeking to expose and end human rights abuses. Placing abortion alongside issues like freedom of speech, religious liberty, and other universally agreed human rights sends a message to the global community.

Meanwhile, abortion proponents want more. When the Biden administration announced the “reproductive rights” section would be returning, Human Rights Watch called on Congress to make its inclusion a matter of law in case “another administration decided to pursue anti-choice policies.” They also demanded that the Biden State Department meet with “women’s rights and gender justice” groups to develop guidelines to ensure that future reports better reflect their priorities.

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