Pneumatic Blogging

Countries around the world that strictly deny women’s access to abortion, including when such access could save their lives and health, also tend to have the highest rates of maternal mortality.

Most Latin American countries criminalize abortions, forcing girls and women to resort to unsafe, clandestine abortions.  According to the World Health Organization, “Death due to complications of abortion is not uncommon, and is one of the principal causes of maternal mortality” and of an estimated 300,000 hospitalizations.

Failure to provide life-saving abortions can also be considered as “cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment”. See http://www.hrw.org/en/node/87624 for a discussion on why.

The Human Rights Committee has found that criminalization of abortion, including in cases of rape, violates the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment in article 7 of the ICCPR.