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Human Rights Defenders (Website Landing Page)
Women’s reproductive rights are grounded in universal human rights the United States has recognized for more than 60 years. These rights include the rights to life, equality, privacy, medical care, information, education, and freedom from discrimination.
Promoting and defending these rights has not been easy. The U.S. joined the U.N. General Assembly to recognize the special challenges faced by the courageous people who undertake this work. They are known as human rights defenders.
Abortion providers in the U.S. are human rights defenders. They work, often against great odds, to help women realize their reproductive rights. They ensure that all women have access to accurate medical information, a secure place to make private decisions, and, most importantly, access to safe medical procedures.
New research by the Center demonstrates that these physicians and reproductive healthcare professionals who work to provide abortions are frequently denied government and societal support for their critical work. Dr. George Tiller’s recent murder vividly demonstrates that abortion providers continue to be targeted for attacks and harassment. As a result, women in the U.S. are denied their fundamental human rights.
But there is hope. In the face of ever multiplying restrictions and regulations, threats to their safety, and daily harassment, the doctors and healthcare providers documented in this report continue to provide services. Their courage and commitment to women’s reproductive health and rights drives them to persevere in the face of incredible obstacles.
Next Steps
Urgent action is required to recognize abortion providers as human rights defenders, to protect their rights, and to hold those who perpetrate violations accountable. The Center recommends the following actions:
• Government at all levels should adopt and enforce measures to improve the safety of providers.
• Discriminatory legal restrictions that impede providers’ work should be repealed, including biased counseling and mandatory delay laws, discriminatory medical practice and facilities requirements, and funding restrictions.
• The international human rights community should work with the U.S. government to publicize and condemn reproductive rights violations as a human rights issue and to recognize and protect abortion providers who act as human rights defenders.
• The medical community should strongly condemn attacks on abortion providers and the singling out of abortion for different requirements and restrictions than other medical care.
• Steps must be taken by government at all levels and by the medical community to reverse the marginalization of abortion services and to create opportunities for new providers to train and practice.
• Significant efforts must be made by non-governmental organizations at the community level to educate both policymakers and the public to reduce stigma around abortion, and to increase recognition that access to reproductive health services is a fundamental component of basic human rights and that abortion is an essential part of women’s reproductive healthcare.
The physicians and healthcare workers documented in this report are human rights defenders. Learn more about the work they do by downloading the report for free.