NGOs Cite CEDAW Committee’s Pro-abortion Stand at Current Meetings

By C-FAM Staff | 2002

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM) Since the word "abortion" does not appear in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), US proponents of the controversial UN treaty claim that CEDAW has nothing to do with abortion. However, the CEDAW Compliance Committee, which possesses the authority to interpret the CEDAW document, has extended the original document to include abortion rights. According to its official interpretation of CEDAW Article 12, issued in 1999, the CEDAW Committee holds that "States Parties should ensure, without prejudice or discrimination, the right to sexual health information, education and services for all women and girls." In UN parlance, reproductive health services include abortion.

     At the current CEDAW meetings taking place at UN Headquarters, this interpretation is considered authoritative. In reports produced by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the Committees recommendations are used as the basis of criticism against states. For instance, the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP), a pro-abortion legal group based in New York, chastised a number of Latin American countries. CRLP stated that the Committee "recommended that the Peruvian government revise the legislation on abortion and protect women's access to basic and complete health care, including the right to safe abortion…However, Peru has ignored this recommendation." And concerning Mexico, CRLP claims that "the government is under obligation" to liberalize abortion laws in all Mexican federal districts.

     The Committee also established that CEDAW obligates states to remove obstacles to all reproductive services, thus including abortion, declaring that "The duty to fulfill rights places an obligation on States parties to take appropriate legislative, judicial, administrative, budgetary, economic and other measures to the maximum extent…" According to the Committee, "Barriers include requirements or conditions that prejudice women's access, such as high fees for health-care services, the requirement for preliminary authorization by spouse, parent or hospital authorities, distance from health facilities and the absence of convenient and affordable public transport." Apparently, according to the CEDAW Committee, not only does CEDAW recognize the right to abortion-on-demand, it also holds that states should pay for abortions, even pay for transportation to abortion clinics.

     There is an Optional Protocol to CEDAW, an addition to the original document that grants individuals the right to bring complaints against states before the CEDAW Committee. It also expands the powers of the Committee so that it can carry out its own investigations of nations. A UN observer told the Friday Fax that, as the Optional Protocol comes into force, the reports of pro-abortion NGOs will become official complaints, and they may form the basis of CEDAW Committee investigations into pro-life nations.

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