Abortion Rights Under Threat: Geneva Consensus Declaration and New Polish Law | Study Guides, Projects, Research Human Rights

The debate on abortion has been raging on for quite some while. It has been addressed

exhaustively on religious, moral, and legal grounds throughout the world, but despite the efforts

of the “pro-life” and “pro-choice” movements, the debate seems to be far from settled. Recent

developments demonstrate that abortion rights of women might be under threat in Europe and the

US.

Geneva Consensus Declaration

Moving towards a more socially conservative direction, the United States of America has joined

a list of 32 largely illiberal and undemocratic nations in declaring that women do not have an

inherent right to abortion by becoming a signatory to the Geneva Consensus Declaration on

Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family.1 The declaration was co-sponsored

by the US, Uganda, Indonesia, Hungary, Egypt, and Brazil and signed by a number of

authoritarian nations like Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Most of the

signatories have poor human rights records, while many are even ranked among the twenty worst

performers on the Women Peace and Security Index released by Georgetown University.2

The declaration, despite reaffirming that the human rights of women are an “inalienable” part of

all human rights and basic liberties, states that there is no international right to abortion. As

such, States are not internationally obligated to finance or facilitate abortion. The signatories

commit to promoting women’s rights and securing their access to health, but without including.

“In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning,” reads the declaration,

which although nonbinding, appears poised to undermine global reproductive health and abortion

rights.

New Polish law

One of the signatories of the declaration is Poland, a country having some of the strictest

abortion laws in the world and currently facing mass protests after a ruling by the Polish

Constitutional Tribunal approved a near-complete ban on abortion in the country. The previously

existing Polish abortion law of 1993, itself considered to be one of the most restrictive of its kind

in Europe, allowed the termination of pregnancy only in cases where there was a likelihood of

1 Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family, 2020.

2 Women, Peace, and Security Index 2019/20, GIWPS.

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The debate on abortion has been raging on for quite some while. It has been addressed exhaustively on religious, moral, and legal grounds throughout the world, but despite the efforts of the “pro-life” and “pro-choice” movements, the debate seems to be far from settled. Recent developments demonstrate that abortion rights of women might be under threat in Europe and the US. Geneva Consensus Declaration Moving towards a more socially conservative direction, the United States of America has joined a list of 32 largely illiberal and undemocratic nations in declaring that women do not have an inherent right to abortion by becoming a signatory to the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family.^1 The declaration was co-sponsored by the US, Uganda, Indonesia, Hungary, Egypt, and Brazil and signed by a number of authoritarian nations like Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Most of the signatories have poor human rights records, while many are even ranked among the twenty worst performers on the Women Peace and Security Index released by Georgetown University.^2 The declaration, despite reaffirming that the human rights of women are an “inalienable” part of all human rights and basic liberties, states that there is no international right to abortion. As such, States are not internationally obligated to finance or facilitate abortion. The signatories commit to promoting women’s rights and securing their access to health, but without including_. “In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning,”_ reads the declaration, which although nonbinding, appears poised to undermine global reproductive health and abortion rights. New Polish law One of the signatories of the declaration is Poland, a country having some of the strictest abortion laws in the world and currently facing mass protests after a ruling by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal approved a near-complete ban on abortion in the country. The previously existing Polish abortion law of 1993, itself considered to be one of the most restrictive of its kind in Europe, allowed the termination of pregnancy only in cases where there was a likelihood of (^1) Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family, 2020. (^2) Women, Peace, and Security Index 2019/20, GIWPS.

irreversible damage to the fetus or some incurable illness threatening the fetus’ life, justifiable suspicion that the pregnancy was the result of an illegal act, or when the pregnancy threatened the life or health of the pregnant woman.^3 On October 22nd, 2020, the constitutional court of the largely conservative country struck down a portion of the said law, declaring the provision allowing termination of malformed fetuses as unconstitutional. Now, abortions can be carried out in a select few cases of incest, rape, or threat to the mother’s life. This decision is set to severely impact Polish women who will now be forced to seek illegal abortions which might endanger their health and lives, or to travel abroad by incurring high expenses in even greater numbers than before. As it is, up to 200,000 Polish women are estimated to abort their pregnancies every year, with 10-15% of these traveling abroad for the same, of which only around a thousand are lawful.^4 The change is especially distressing in light of the Polish government’s own statistics, which reveal that an overwhelming majority of abortions take place on the grounds of fetal anomaly. As per official Polish government data from 2017, of a total of 1057 abortions that took place that year, 1035 (97.9%) were carried out due to some kind of fetal defect.^5 On the other hand, the percentage of abortions on the basis of safeguarding life or health dropped from 88.1% of all legal abortions in 1994 to a mere 2.1% in 2017. Moreover, not one abortion was undertaken because of rape in the country of 3.8 crores. Similar figures were observed in 2019 when 1074 of the 1100 legal abortions in Poland resulted from fetal anomalies,^6 which underscore the fact that abortion on the grounds of fetal abnormalities was effectively the only legal way through which Polish women could terminate their (^3) Article 4a, Family Planning, Human Embryo Protection and Conditions of Permissibility of Abortion Act, 1993. (^4) Ewa Hirvonen, “Polish Abortion Tourism”, Laurea University of Applied Sciences (2017), https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/138222/thesis_Ewa_Hirvonen.pdf?sequence=1. (^5) Sydney Calkin, “Poland’s abortion ruling amounts to a ban – but it will not end access”, The Conversation (Oct 27, 2020), https://theconversation.com/polands-abortion-ruling-amounts-to-a-ban-but-it-will-not-end-access-148819. (^6) Monika Pronczuk, “ Poland Court Ruling Effectively Bans Legal Abortions”, The New York Times (Oct. 22, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/world/europe/poland-tribunal-abortions.html.

the Polish Constitution, abortion on the basis of the health of the fetus would be “a directly forbidden form of discrimination.”^10 While the decision cannot be appealed, the continuing protests have forced the government to postpone its implementation indefinitely.^11 The European Parliament has also adopted a resolution condemning the de facto ban on the right to abortion in Poland and urging the Polish Parliament and authorities to “refrain from any further attempts to restrict” women's sexual and reproductive health rights.^12 (^10) Ibid. (^11) Monika Pronczuk, “ Poland Delays a Near-Total Ban on Abortion”, The New York Times (Nov 4, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/world/europe/poland-abortion-law-delay.html. (^12) European Parliament resolution of 26 November 2020 on the de facto ban on the right to abortion in Poland (2020/2876(RSP))

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