May 26, 2021
** Legislation would permanently require the US Department of State to include reproductive rights in its annual national reports on human rights practices **
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) today joined Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and 21 Senators to reintroduce their bill, the Reproductive rights are the law of human rights. The bill would require the United States Department of State to include reproductive rights in its annual country reports on human rights practices – including reports on the adoption of national policies to promote human rights. access to contraception, maternal health care and family planning services – to help ensure accountability for abuse. on these rights. The State Department removed this essential component from its report without justification in 2017 under the Trump administration.
“Women’s health and bodies should not be debated. Reproductive care is a fundamental human right ”. mentionned Shaheen. “The United States plays an important role as defenders of women’s human rights around the world, but we cannot do it without comprehensive information and reports on the state of reproductive care. The Department of State’s annual human rights report is a key accountability tool for women’s access to basic health care. The Trump administration’s decision to remove this from previous reports has had dangerous consequences for the health, equality and freedom of women around the world. That’s why I’m working with Congress and the Biden administration to stop the politicization of this reporting and restore transparency around the state of reproductive rights around the world.
As required by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974, the Secretary of State reports annually to Congress on the status of human rights in each country receiving foreign aid from the United States. , as well as in every member state of the United Nations. Since 2011, these reports contain detailed information on the deprivation of women’s access to reproductive rights. The removal of women’s rights from the annual report in 2017 was a dramatic and dangerous change in the United States’ efforts to protect the international rights of women and sent a message to abusive governments that the United States would no longer hold them accountable. violations.
In response to efforts by Congress and civil society, the Biden administration restored reporting in March 2021. Reintroduced today, the reproductive rights law is a human right would ensure the continuity of these relationships.
For the 117th Congress, the bill has been updated to reflect current human rights standards, and now requires reporting on:
- Equitable access to abortion, contraception, quality maternal health care, and rates and causes of maternal death.
- Disaggregated maternal health data to better understand disparities in pregnancy-related outcomes, especially for low-income and marginalized communities.
- Data on other forms of reproductive coercion, in addition to forced abortion and involuntary sterilization.
Congress and the private sector rely on this report when reviewing credit requests and making advocacy, planning and policy decisions. Additionally, the report is used by immigration judges and asylum officers to determine the asylum status of women reporting human rights violations at the U.S. border. By removing reproductive health and rights from the report, women found themselves without this fundamental evidence to support their asylum claim.
The full text of the invoice is available here.
As the only woman on the Senate External Relations Committee, Senator Shaheen has been a strong advocate for women and girls in the United States and around the world. Shaheen prioritized issues aimed at empowering women and supporting women’s rights, such as opposing efforts to roll back women’s reproductive rights, fighting for the rights of survivors of sexual assault, advocacy for family planning and global women’s health, spearheading efforts to end violence against women, ensure women have leadership roles in conflict resolution and negotiation peace and draft laws to remove barriers girls around the world face in accessing education. She led a bipartisan group of senators to present a resolution recognizing March 8, 2021 as International Women’s Day, and she is the primary sponsor of the Global Health, Empowerment and Rights (HER) Act. The Global HER Act would permanently repeal the Global Gag Rule. Shaheen previously reintroduced the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA). This bipartisan bill would ensure that addressing gender-based violence around the world remains a top diplomatic and development priority for the United States. She also helped reintroduce the bipartisan bill, the Ensure the safety of women and girls from the start of the 2021 authorization law, to address gender-based violence perpetrated during humanitarian crises, which disproportionately threatens the well-being of vulnerable women and girls.
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