The decision to overturn Roe v Wade means that abortion rights will be rolled back 50 times with further restrictions likely to follow. This decision will affect US foreign policy and women outside the US. The regression may have ruinous goods on women's rights globally.
Women today will come of age with lower rights as the court’s decision means that, from the very moment of conception, a woman has no rights to speak of. A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, indeed, at the steepest personal and domestic costs.
Further, the decision is likely to hinder the rights of married people to have access to contraception. Notably, the decision leaves no fundamental right to insulation or particular autonomy in various provisions of the Constitution.
A multitude of other restrictions could limit where, by whom, and under what conditions abortion can be offered, including requiring parental consent involving cases who are minors and indeed bear furnishing proof of say defilement, rape and other health regulations for doctors and clinics that many medical groups say are unnecessary, expensive, and delicate to comply with.
Abortion bans in restrictive countries will presumably bleed over to countries and countries that cover abortion rights as well. For instance, the Global gag Rule requires foreign NGOs to certify that they will not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning” using finances from any source, including non-US finances, as a condition of receiving US global family planning support. A notable fact is that, in Kenya, 95 per cent of sexual and reproductive health aid comes from the US.
Overturning Roe v Wade is the opening of the assault on women’s rights around the world. In Kenya, for instance, the High Court reinstated the Standards and Guidelines for Reducing Morbidity and Mortality from Unsafe Abortion in 2019, but the Ministry of Health did not give direction to health professionals on its performance.
This was considerably interpreted as the government’s hesitancy to depart from the also-current US position on abortion. All that means is that a lot of women in the country still have little choice other than turning to unsafe backstreet abortions that can lead to sepsis, shock, organ failure and death.
“WATCH: The latest videos from the Star”According to the Guttmacher report of 2020, a total of 930,160 abortions occurred in the US. Confining safe abortion access has negative consequences for pregnant women, who are at increased hassle of physical and mental health issues when they are denied abortion, and for foetus health.
The decision to end the federal constitutional right to an abortion is politically motivated, rather than driven by an attempt to cover women from worse particular and financial issues.
Forcing adolescents and women in all their diversities to carry pregnancy to term means limiting them to achieve their potential.
Taking down a woman's right to choose if and when she has a child has serious consequences for her. In fact, utmost women who seek access to cancellation around the world have advanced rates of poverty, advanced severance and lower reliance rate.
Roe v Wade has long been an important ordnance in the fight to liberalise abortion laws and make the procedure safer for women and girls despite it rarely being invoked, especially in Africa, where the risk of dying from an unsafe cancellation is the topmost in the world.
The Maputo Protocol, which was espoused in 2003, explicitly requires countries to authorise medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, or where the continued pregnancy endangers the health of the mother.
This specific provision draws from the 1979 United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which in turn hooked its clause on access to safe abortion on Roe v Wade. The US programmes on abortion, whether we like it or not, significantly impact how seriously governments take the issue of unsafe abortion.
Thus, the capsizing of Roe v Wade would not only affect the safety and well-being of American women, but women across the world and especially those in developing countries. My call to our government is to align the public laws with the international treaties it has signed.
Every person in all their diversity should have the freedom to make their own particular healthcare decision. Fundamental human rights on access to SRHR for girls and women is what we want to see in the world.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights expert and a practising communications strategist
