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While the World Makes Progress on Reproductive Rights, the U.S. Regresses

— Why is the U.S. failing to lead the way in securing and protecting abortion rights?

MedpageToday
A photo of an abortion rights activist holding up a KEEP ABORTION LEGAL sign at a march at the US Capitol building.

In the last few years, a wave of court rulings and laws decriminalizing abortion have swept across Latin America, on the backs of pro-abortion activists like those in Argentina's who "" by delivering unprecedented victories for reproductive rights in the region.

In December 2020 made abortion legal up to 14-weeks in pregnancy; last September, decriminalized abortion, paving the way for legalization; and just this past month, abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. The World Health Organization (WHO) just released new that affirm a wide range of options for safely managing abortions. And for the first time, WHO recommended health officials and other policymakers recognize that people can safely self-manage all or parts of their abortion with abortion pills or through the use of telehealth services.

As a board-certified ob/gyn and abortion care provider I look at this progress -- from a region traditionally perceived as conservative and an international body whose guidelines are used to write country-specific health regulations all over the world -- and wonder why America is instead trending toward authoritarian countries that have often begun their descents into despotism by on abortion and LGBTQ rights.

In the past few months, politicians eager to see Roe v. Wade overturned have quickly mobilized to pass dangerous restrictions on abortion access that blow past the boundaries established by decades of legal precedent. Texas' 6-week ban is now being copied by and ; just voted to ban abortion outright and make it punishable by up to 10 years in prison; Missouri lawmakers want to from seeking abortions out of state; and of conservative legislatures are attempting to ban telehealth and medication abortion. Furthermore, states are creating to record and store data on people seeking counsel on their options, allowing the to sue someone who has an abortion, and using to criminalize people who google options for self-managed or medication abortion. All this despite loads of scientific evidence showing that abortion is , and a to reflect that.

As a provider of abortion, I state clearly and unequivocally that all abortions are good abortions that should never be criminalized or prohibited. All abortion care is safe and there's an overwhelming body of evidence to prove it, including for folks who . Abortion is time-sensitive, essential care that is a normal part of the spectrum of comprehensive reproductive healthcare.

And yet, lawmakers and activists across the U.S. continue to push misinformed, dangerous bans and shame-driven disinformation. As a healthcare provider, I cannot comprehend how a country that prides itself on guaranteeing freedom and individual rights can so consistently and cruelly invade a person's privacy, bodily autonomy, and liberty. It is so frustrating and saddening to see how politicians blatantly disregard the science to push their own agendas -- forgetting the often marginalized people they leave behind without access to care. As Washington Post columnist Frida Ghitis recently , "Not all democracies allow abortion, and not all autocracies ban it, but there's a definite correlation between democratic freedoms and abortion rights."

We must ask ourselves why the U.S. is far from leading the way in securing and protecting abortion rights for its people, and how that correlates to other issues weakening America from within and exacerbating inequality -- health and otherwise -- in our society. Indeed as Michele Goodwin, JD, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine, , "Democracy backslides whenever we deny the humanity of individuals to be able to govern their own bodies."

So, as abortion rights advocates in the U.S. fight against a growing onslaught of abortion bans, we can look abroad to find hope and inspiration for our own reproductive rights struggles. We can be inspired by the organizing efforts of the Green Wave in Latin America, and by Canada's expanded access to abortion care, including through . The U.S. is the outlier. Since we cannot rely on the Supreme Court to guarantee access -- and because Roe v. Wade was always the floor of what was possible for reproductive justice -- we must mobilize to support concrete actions in support of abortion access.

Lastly, in a country that claims to be committed to democracy, we must be committed to respecting people's bodily autonomy.

an ob/gyn in New Jersey and Board Chair of .