Abortion, a Marker of Inequality
Even though the number of unwanted pregnancies is diminishing overall, a quarter of all pregnancies are terminated each year by abortion (56 million out of a total of 224 million) according to WHO. Almost half of these present major risks (infections, hemorrhages, lesions, death). WHO therefore recommends measures to make abortion safe using appropriate methods performed by qualified staff. It also encourages states to respect SDG (sustainable development goals) commitments concerning access to sexual and reproductive health services (goal 3.7) and, in the name of human, recalls the obligation to provide care in the event of complications from an illegal abortion.
Legislation on abortion rights is varied and evolving (decriminalization or re-criminalization), and prohibitions not only fail to reduce the number of abortions but further increase the danger. Just over one-third of states authorize abortion with no legal restriction (even though restrictions exist in reality: practical conditions of access, delays, etc.), while others criminalize it (for women and medical personnel) with a total or partial ban (except in cases where the mother’s life is endangered, or for rape, incest, or malformation of the fetus). With the rise of conservative parties, campaigns calling abortion into question are reappearing (Poland and the United States, where legislation is specific to each federal state), but in May 2018, the Irish voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to repeal the constitutional ban on abortion. Legislation alone does not provide the adequate conditions to enable women to make a choice about giving birth.
Abortion rights in the world, 2017
Comment: The World Health Organization’s free-access database on national abortion policies puts forward numerous criteria (on rights, health services, and actors involved) with the aim of increasing transparency, responsibility and respect for women’s rights in support of its programs for preventing unsafe abortions. Only some of these criteria have been selected here; they show a global North-South contrast, with notable exceptions in each region.
Poor matern policies, the absence of sex education or access to methods of contraception and family planning more generally are the prime causes of unwanted pregnancies, which are frequent among poor adolescents. In some parts of the world, the continuing preference for boys leads to the selective abortion of girls; this is illegal, but the greater availability of ultrasound scanning has caused the practice to spread (particularly in India and China).
- SDG > Millennium Development Goals
- In 2000, UN member states adopted eight MDGs for the eradication of extreme poverty and in response to other major humanitarian issues (hunger, access to education and health, sexual equality, etc.) in the countries of the South by 2015. These goals were very unevenly met and widely criticized on different grounds, including the lack of human rights goals, the lack of civil society involvement in negotiating the goals, and the fact that they related solely to the countries of the South. The SDGs that replaced the MDGs in 2015 have in part answered these criticisms. They comprise 17 goals and 169 targets to be met by all countries by 2030, and relate to a range of sectors, including poverty, hunger, health, education, sexual equality, social justice, infrastructure, environment, climate, etc.
- rape > Rape
- Rape is a criminal act that uses human sexuality (in all its forms) as a method of torture and destruction of the victim’s identity and physical integrity, without necessarily involving death. It has lasting long-term consequences (pregnancy, disease, psychological burden, social and/or family stigma). Sexual violence has an inherent dissymmetry linked to the conditions of human reproduction, since only rape victims who are women can fall pregnant. Rape is an extreme form of violence and a crime of violation for the social and moral individual affected (destruction of family honor in some cultures, feelings of shame among victims). The use of systematic rape as a weapon of war has been recognized since the 1990s.
- federal > Federalism
- At national level, federalism is a mode of government that grants a high level of autonomy to the political communities federated within it. The allocation of responsibilities between federal and regional levels of government, in principle strictly defined, often remains flexible in practice (e.g. the paradiplomacy conducted by the province of Quebec, the German Länder, the Swiss cantons and the states of Brazil). Internationally the federal model is defended within the European Union by advocates of greater political integration, opposed by defenders of the sovereignist model which is more intergovernmental, inter-state in its approach.