08.08.2022
Key Points for the CERD Committee’s Review of the United States: Abortion Restrictions are a Form of Racial Discrimination
Abortion Restrictions violate the right to health of women of color and perpetuate racial discrimination
Women and adolescents of color disproportionately suffer as a result of abortion restrictions.
- Women of color have a greater need for abortion care due in large part to the social, economic, and geographical barriers that limit access to healthcare, including contraception.
- Systemic racism in the US criminal legal system means that women of color face a heightened risk of criminal prosecution for abortion. Pregnant people, particularly Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous women, are already policed and criminally punished for pregnancy outcomes.
- Being forced to carry a pregnancy to term is especially dangerous for Black women in the US, who are three times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes.
- The economic costs and unpaid care burden of forced parenting are more challenging for women of color than for white women – women of color are already more likely to live below the poverty line, receive low wages, experience unemployment and suffer labor discrimination than white women.
US foreign policy (including the Helms Amendment) severely undermines access to abortion for women and damages the health and lives of Black and brown women in Global South middle- and low-income countries.
Recommendations
- Take federal and state legislative steps to guarantee effective access to affordable, legal, and quality abortion care.
- Remove the Helms Amendment restrictions on US foreign aid to ensure that development assistance and global health funds provide safe and quality abortion care and information.