Attempts to Abortion as Primary Health Care and Under UHC

The pro-abortion tactic that seeks to advance access to abortion as primary health care (PHC) and included under universal health coverage (UHC) has dominated recent actions by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO explains this tactic in its abortion guidelines stating,

 

“To ensure both access to abortion and achievement of UHC, abortion must be centred [centered] within primary health care (PHC), which itself is fully integrated within the health system…Making abortion available and accessible within PHC is a safe and effective strategy to advance equitable access to, and provide an enabling environment for, abortion.”

 

PNCI reports on recent events and actions which advance access to abortion as primary health care and and include abortion under univeral health coverage. According to WHO, universal health coverage means that "all people have access to the full range of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship."

President Biden at the G7 Supports UHC for SRHR

During he G7 meeting in Hiroshima President Biden agreed to the G7 Hiroshima Leaders’ Communiqué which reaffirms “the essential role of UHC in addressing various health challenges significantly set back by the pandemic…such as… realizing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all…”

 

The 7 leaders committed “to further promoting comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all individuals…”

 

President Biden explained in his executive order following the Dobbs decision that the administration was committed to “promote access to critical reproductive healthcare services, including abortion.” The order explained that term “reproductive healthcare services” means “medical, surgical, counseling, or referral services relating to the human reproductive system, including services relating to pregnancy or the termination of a pregnancy.”

 

HHS Secretary Becerra Promotes Abortion as Primary Health Care at G7

HHS reports that Secretary Becerra attended the G7 health ministerial in Nagasaki and in his remarks “emphasized the urgency of strengthening access to essential health services, including through primary health care, and the urgency of advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

 

Becerra agreed to the G7 Nagasaki Health Ministers’ Communiqué which promotes access to abortion using the context that as the world transitions away from COVID-19 the achievement of universal health coverage is needed with primary health care as the "cornerstone". The leaders lament that some countries experienced a disruption in essential health services during the pandemic including in sexual and reproductive health. 

 

In the section, “Maternal and child health, and comprehensive SRHR”, the health leaders commit to “take steps collectively to ensure universal access to comprehensive health services at every stage of life, including maternal and child health and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services for all”. They recommend the “broadest approach to advancing comprehensive SRHR for all” which they state includes addressing access to abortion and SRHR advocacy.

 

Becerra and the other leaders opppose pro-life gains which they refer to as "rollback" and commit to advance abortion at the primary health care (PHC) level and as UHC:

 

“As part of these wider efforts to defend and promote SRHR in the face of attempted rollback, we will advocate for the inclusion of the comprehensive SRH services as an essential part of UHC at the PHC level.”

 

The health ministerial also adopted the G7 Global Plan for UHC Action Agenda which includes committing to accelerate collective action “towards the realization of universal health coverage (UHC)”. Becerra committed to “advocating for and support creating enabling national legislative frameworks that build safe, equitable and resilient health systems that include sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

 

A key G7 Action to support gender equality in health is to “take steps to ensure gender-responsive policies and health services, including universal access to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights for all”.

 

The Global Plan makes a cloaked reference to Dobbs and the multilateral pro-life work of the Trump administration: “Given the well-coordinated and funded rollback on gender and rights movement at country and multilateral levels, the G7 will step up our efforts to work together on promoting SRHR and explore ways to assess the impact on sexual and reproductive health services and rights.”

 

Becerra Advances Abortion at the World Health Assembly

Becerra also represented the United States at the 76th World Health Assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organization (WHO), where he stated that the U.S. “is proud to be both a strong partner and a leader in global public health” and spoke of “the benefits of building strong health systems based on equity, inclusion, and opportunity”. He qualified the statement by saying, “to build that equitable and inclusive world, we must ensure sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.”

 

Becerra expressed the full support of the U.S. for the WHO stating that it “embodies our shared values and remains vitally important to the global struggle for health and well-being.”

 

He referenced the contentious and dangerous pandemic accord/treaty saying, “Together, let’s commit to reaching agreement both on the pandemic accord and targeted amendments to the International Health Regulations in this coming year.”

New EU-U.S. Health Task Force Includes Promotion of Abortion

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra met in Brussels with EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, to launch the EU-U.S. Health Task Force to expand the partnership in the area of health. According to HHS, the “EU and the U.S. remain committed to promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights” and that they will work together for a successful outcome of negotiations on the pandemic agreement and amendments to the International Health Regulations.



The task force has already established two working groups and are preparing to set up one for “women's rights and reproductive health”.

WHO Wants Abortion to be included under Universal Health Coverage

The World Health Organization (WHO) as the UN’s health agency laments that abortion is not often included as universal sexual and reproductive health coverage and seeks to expand access to abortion universally by placing sexual and reproductive health in the context of universal health coverage (UHC) to be accessed on the primary health care (PHC) level.

 

WHO states in Investing in sexual and reproductive health and rights: essential elements of universal health coverage: “Sexual and reproductive health are integral elements of the right of everyone, to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have explicitly recognized sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and reproductive rights as essential not only to health but also to gender equality and wider economic and social development. Access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services are therefore critical for progressing towards universal health coverage (UHC) while also contributing to gender equality.”

 

The lack of access to reproductive health services—including abortion— is lamented and blamed on “insufficient funding at both global and national levels, restrictive laws and policies, gender norms, stereotypes, and inequalities and health systems constraints, including insufficient integration of comprehensive SRH services in health benefit packages and primary care.”

 

WHO insists that an “enabling legal environment is crucial for successfully implementing rights-based sexual and reproductive health services" and is critical of national laws and policies stating: "Even in contexts where funding is available, access to SRH services may be constrained by national laws and policies and/or deep-rooted cultural inequalities relating to gender and social norms; for example, age of consent laws, highly restrictive abortion laws…”

 

WHO’s solution is for governments to integrate sexual and reproductive health into national health policies and plans for “for strengthening UHC and health systems”. In the section Key actions and policy recommendations, WHO describes comprehensive SRH services as including abortion and recommends that governments follow the guidance in Critical Considerations and Actions for Achieving Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Context of Universal Health Coverage through a Primary Health Care Approach to ensure “progress towards universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in the context of primary health care (PHC)- and universal health coverage (UHC)-related policy and strategy reforms.” The guide is intended for “stakeholders working towards ensuring universal access to SRH services within individual country programmes especially in the context of UHC strategies.”

 

In 2020, WHO included ‘comprehensive abortion care’ in the list of essential health care services during COVID-19 stating: "Abortion is a simple health care intervention that can be effectively managed by a wide range of health workers using medication or a surgical procedure."

 

 

High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage

A High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) will take place at the UN in New York on September 21, 2023 to approve a political declaration and mobilize political support for UHC. Leading pro-abortion supporters and the WHO have been pushing for sexual and reproductive health to be included under Universal Health Coverage. The Zero Draft Political Declaration has been released which satisfies their demands. PP18 was submitted by WHO and states: “Recognize that women of reproductive age continue to have inadequate access to sexual and reproductive health care services.”

 

Similarly, OP16 states: “Ensure, by 2030, universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes, and ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences; (Source: A/RES/74/2 Paragraph 68 verbatim)”.

 

The outcome documents of the review conferences are highly controversial. Pro-life and pro-family countries protest their inclusion during UN negotiations stemming from the fact that a number of the 20-year ICPD review outcome documents were not openly negotiated and promote abortion and controversial sexual issues that conflict with laws, culture and religions of Member States. 

Head of UNFPA at WHA--SRHR Must be enshrined in Universal HealthCare

During an event at the 76^th World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva, executive director of UNFPA Janet Kanem spoke at an event entitled “Sexual and reproductive health and rights must be enshrined in universal healthcare”, the same title as an opinion piece she authored for Nature Medicine in which she states “sexual and reproductive health and rights must be integral to universal healthcare.”

 

There can be no doubt that she includes access to abortion as the executive director quotes the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission and World Health Organization abortion guidelines both of which state that universal healthcare packages should include abortion in the range of sexual and reproductive health interventions. Kanem believes that “ensuring sexual and reproductive health and rights for all is essential not only for universal health coverage, but also for realizing the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.”



She laments “the recent pushback on the rights and choices of women and girls in parts of the world” writing that “such rights are essential to deliver a world in which every woman, girl and young person can live up to their potential.”

Pro-Abortion NGOs Issue Blueprint for Action

Pro-abortion organizations released what they call A Blueprint Vision Statement Principles to Reimagine and Strengthen Reproductive Freedom in which they declare their unity and re-dedicate themselves “to protecting and advancing sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice (SRHRJ) in the United States and around the world.”

 

They voice strong objection to the pro-life movement stating that “an emboldened opposition is escalating efforts to undermine sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice here and around the world.”  The Dobbs decision is highlighted as “an attack on abortion rights and also part of an ongoing global assault on human rights to undermine access to contraception, sex education, gender-affirming care, the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ people, and more.”

 

The organizations— including EngenderHealth, Human Rights Watch, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Guttmacher Institute, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Catholics for Choice, Population Institute, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Fòs Feminista, Global Justice Center, and Women’s Refugee Commission— declare that they “must reimagine and reclaim our sexual and reproductive freedom”. They urge leaders in all levels of government “to affirm their commitment to and actively fight for policy changes to advance sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice in the United States and around the world for all people.”



Office holders in the U.S. are instructed to prioritize sexual and reproductive health and rights in the budget process and “to fully fund domestic and global sexual and reproductive health and rights education, programs, and services.” 

Guatemala: Pro-Life Candidates Sign Declaration to Protect Life and the Family

Pro-life political candidates in Guatemala are pledging their commitment to protect life by signing the “Declaration of Life and Family” this month. The Declaration is expected by be signed by an array of candidates running for various offices for the term of 2024-2028. In signing, the candidates commit to uphold the principles of Guatemala’s constitution, specifically “the protection of human life from conception until natural death, the family, integrated by a marriage between a man and a woman.” The Declaration states that "the defense of the family as the basis of society and life as the main human right will help us build the foundations of a prosperous future for our country." The Family Matters Association (AFI) called the Declaration a tool for citizens to monitor officials and ensure that if elected, they continue to uphold those values. 

UK: Report Exposes UK Funding Link to Coerced Abortion in China

A report by the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) has revealed the UK has been complicit in coerced abortion in China. SPUC launched its report, entitled “COMPLICIT: Is UK money contributing to coerced abortion in China?” at an event for MPs, who heard indicative evidence indirectly linking UK assistance with the Chinese government’s human rights abuses against the Uyghur population. MPs also heard results of a poll where 60 percent of British citizens said that the “UK should cut funding to countries such as China where there is concern that women are routinely forced or coerced into having an abortion.”

U.S.: North Carolina Lawmakers Override Governor’s Veto to Pass Abortion Ban

North Carolina’s legislature has voted to override the Governor’s veto to pass a new abortion ban into law. Senate Bill 20, the Care for Women, Children, and Families Act, limits abortions in the state from 20 to 12 weeks and bans the distribution of abortion pills through the mail. The bill was approved by both the House and Senate, then vetoed by Governor Roy Cooper. Members of both chambers voted by party lines to override the veto, voting 30-20 in the Senate and 72-48 in the House. The new law goes into effect July 1^st. 

Portugal: President Signs Euthanasia Bill into Law

Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa signed into law legislation legalizing euthanasia. The president had twice previously vetoed similar bills, expressing opposition to the legislation as a devout Catholic. It was reported that the redrafted “medically assisted dying” bill took into consideration the president’s objections, as well as those from the constitutional court, which had twice rejected other euthanasia bills. The final version permits euthanasia only in cases where “medically assisted suicide is impossible due to a physical incapacitation of the patient.” President De Sousa explained he was obligated by the constitution to sign the bill into law: "The constitution obliges the president to enact a law which he has vetoed and which has (then) been confirmed by the Assembly of the Republic. I will sign it, of course, it is my constitutional duty." The new law is expected to go into effect this fall.

U.S.: Governors Sign Pro-Life Bills into Law

Governors in three different states signed pro-life protections into law this past month. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law SB 1580, legislation protecting the conscience rights of doctors and nurses from being forced to participate in abortion services. The law also protects health care providers from action being taken against them for opting out. Pro-life legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) praised Governor DeSantis for signing SB 1580 into law. “Americans shouldn’t be forced to violate their ethical and religious beliefs, and this certainly includes doctors, nurses, and other medical providers. Thankfully, SB 1580 is a strong step in outlining comprehensive protections in Florida law for medical conscience and freedom of speech for medical providers,” said ADF Legal Counsel Stephanie Nichols. 

 

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed into law HB 721, prohibiting dismemberment abortions. The new law bans D&E abortions which gruesomely pull a baby apart limb from limb while their heart is still beating. Ahead of the governor signing it, Planned Parenthood challenged the bill in court, calling the barbaric practice “safe”. “The extreme lengths to which Planned Parenthood is willing to go to protect such a horrific procedure makes it clear that the abortion industry only cares about its bottom line, not protecting women,” said ADF’s Senior Counsel Denise Burke. “Women deserve real health care, and unborn babies deserve a chance at life. We’re grateful to Gov. Gianforte, Speaker Matt Reiger, and the Montana Legislature for standing for life by enacting this legislation.” 

 

Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen signed into law LB574 banning abortions after 12 weeks. LB574, the Let Them Grow Act, lowers the state’s abortion ban to 12 weeks from 20 and bans gender-altering surgeries on minors. "Today is a historic day in the State of Nebraska. It is a day where we are standing up and protecting our kids so that they can have a better and brighter future," said Governor Pillen. "Every human being has a right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness," said Nebraska Sen. Joni Albrecht. "I look forward to the day when every child is protected from conception from elective abortions in the State of Nebraska." 

Spain: Constitutional Court Affirms Right to Abortion

Spain’s highest court has ruled in favor of increased abortion access, approving legislation that was introduced in 2010. The disputed legislation had made abortion legal up to 14 weeks gestation, 22 if the mother or baby were at risk. Before this, Spain’s law had only allowed abortion in cases of rape, health of the mother, or fetal anomaly. The conservative Popular Party (PP) appealed the legislation to constitutional court, where it had remained in limbo, until this year. With a liberal majority, the court revisited the abortion case and issued a new summary affirming a right to abortion and expanding it to include minors access to abortion without parental consent. “Abortion is a right thanks to the feminist struggle and despite the PP which, over 13 years never withdrew its appeal,” tweeted Irene Montero, minister of equality in the leftist coalition government. “Feminist rights are the foundation of democracy despite the resistance of the right.”