Text referring to abortion:
- The right to sexual and reproductive health is also indivisible from and interdependent with other human rights… For example, lack of emergency obstetric care services or denial of abortion often leads to maternal mortality and morbidity, which in turn constitutes a violation of the right to life or security, and in certain circumstances can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
- Ensuring the availability of trained medical and professional personnel and skilled providers who are trained to perform the full range of sexual and reproductive health-care services is a critical component of ensuring availability. Essential medicines should also be available, including a wide range of contraceptive methods, such as condoms and emergency contraception, medicines for abortion and for post-abortion care, and medicines, including generic medicines, for the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and HIV.
- Facilities, goods, information and services related to sexual and reproductive health must be of good quality, meaning that they are evidence-based and scientifically and medically appropriate and up-to-date. This requires trained and skilled health-care personnel and scientifically approved and unexpired drugs and equipment. The failure or refusal to incorporate technological advances and innovations in the provision of sexual and reproductive health services, such as medication for abortion…
- …To lower rates of maternal mortality and morbidity requires emergency obstetric care and skilled birth attendance, including in rural and remote areas, and prevention of unsafe abortions. Preventing unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions requires States to adopt legal and policy measures to guarantee all individuals access to affordable, safe and effective contraceptives and comprehensive sexuality education, including for adolescents; to liberalize restrictive abortion laws; to guarantee women and girls access to safe abortion services and quality post-abortion care, including by training health-care providers; and to respect the right of women to make autonomous decisions about their sexual and reproductive health…
- …There exists a wide range of laws, policies and practices that undermine autonomy and right to equality and non-discrimination in the full enjoyment of the right to sexual and reproductive health, for example criminalization of abortion or restrictive abortion laws…
- The obligation to respect also requires States to repeal, and refrain from enacting, laws and policies that create barriers in access to sexual and reproductive health services. This includes third-party authorization requirements, such as parental, spousal and judicial authorization requirements for access to sexual and reproductive health services and information, including for abortion and contraception; biased counselling and mandatory waiting periods for divorce, remarriage or access to abortion services; mandatory HIV testing; and the exclusion of particular sexual and reproductive health services from public funding or foreign assistance funds. The dissemination of misinformation and the imposition of restrictions on the right of individuals to access information about sexual and reproductive health also violates the duty to respect human rights.
- Examples of violations of the obligation to respect include the establishment of legal barriers impeding access by individuals to sexual and reproductive health services, such as the criminalization of women undergoing abortions and the criminalization of consensual sexual activity between adults…
FULL TEXT OF COMMENT: CESCR, 2 May 2016