UNFPA: Restricting online abortion is violence

By | April 14, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 15 (C-Fam) Although the UN General Assembly has never endorsed the view that abortion is a human right, the UN’s human rights bodies have repeatedly asserted that it is. Human rights bodies also assert that denying access to abortion is a form of violence against women, or, what they now call “gender-based violence.”

A new discussion paper from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) categorizes “targeted surveillance of women’s sexual and reproductive health organizations and services including those procured online (which may include abortion, contraception)” as a form of technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

The paper omits any caveats with regard to the legality of abortion or its provision through online providers, which vary between countries.

A previous UNFPA publication from 2021 discussed the role of the state as a potential perpetrator of technology-facilitated gender-based violence, noting that “governments have the capacity to block access to information and services for sexual and reproductive health, such as online abortion and emergency contraception services.”

These publications raise concerns for several reasons.  First, there is the fact that promoting abortion as a component of “sexual and reproductive health” regardless of national laws is nowhere in UNFPA’s mandate; in fact, the landmark International Conference on Population and Development from 1994 explicitly stated that abortion laws are solely for countries to determine.

Another issue is the way the concept of “violence” in UN negotiations has steadily expanded to include ever more varieties of harassment, including those that occur online and do not involve physical contact. Recent high-level conferences, including the Commission on the Status of Women and the forthcoming Commission on Population and Development, have digital technology as a central theme.

All of these developments reflect the rapidly-changing nature of the international debate on the abortion issue.  The shift from surgical abortion to the use of pills has radically restructured how access to—and restriction of—abortion occurs around the world.  The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increased emphasis on telemedicine, including legal and policy changes in several countries to allow abortion pills to be shipped by mail, even without a single physical appointment with a physician.  In the U.S., the Dobbs Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion further heightened the emphasis by abortion advocates on ensuring that abortion remain accessible, regardless of legal restrictions.

In the wake of Dobbs, online purveyors of abortion pills have proliferated widely, and with them the potential for women to be exposed to pills of dubious provenance and quality, either voluntarily or, as news reports have documented, administered through stealth by others.  National governments have a role in protecting women and girls from exploitation by nefarious online businesses willing to risk their health for profit.

Meanwhile, abortion advocates are increasingly calling for pro-life pregnancy centers to be downgraded in online search results in favor of abortion providers, and pro-life advocates at the UN have faced attempts to silence their voices through vague and unsubstantiated accusations of “intimidation” for attending and participating as members of civil society.

While it carries no binding obligations for UN member states, UNFPA’s stance on surveillance and restrictions of abortion-facilitating websites demonstrates the dangers of allowing “violence” to be redefined. It also demonstrates how the regulation of digital technology is an important front in the debate over the protection of the unborn, both nationally and internationally.

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