The United Nations must think that petition circulating in South Dakota to put Roe v. Wade-era abortion rights in the state constitution is a good idea. Restoring abortion rights fits with the UN’s call in its new report on human rights in the United States to protect women’s reproductive rights nationwide:
29. In the light of the Committee’s general comment No. 36 (2018) on the right to life, and in line with the recommendations made by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the State party should take all measures necessary at the federal, state, local and territorial levels to ensure that women and girls do not have to resort to unsafe abortions that may endanger their lives and health. The State party should, in particular:
(a) Provide legal, effective, safe and confidential access to abortion for women and girls throughout its territory, without discrimination and free from violence and coercion, including through the adoption of legislative initiatives such as the Women’s Health Protection Act;
(b) Put an end to the criminalization of abortion by repealing laws that criminalize abortion, including laws under which criminal sanctions may be imposed on women and girls who undergo abortion, health service providers who assist women and girls to undergo abortion and persons who assist women and girls to procure an abortion, and consider harmonizing its legal and policy framework with the abortion care guideline of the World Health Organization (2022);
(c) Ensure that the professional secrecy of medical staff and patient confidentiality are observed, including by strengthening privacy protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and protect women seeking abortion care from surveillance of their personal digital data for prosecution purposes;
(d) Remove barriers currently impeding access to abortion care, including inter-state travel restrictions, and refrain from introducing new barriers;
(e) Continue its efforts to guarantee and expand access to medication abortion [United Nations Human Rights Committee, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Concluding Observations on the Fifth Periodic Report of the United States of America, 2023.12.07].
Come on, South Dakota! Quit violating universal human rights—put Roe v. Wade on the ballot and write protections for women’s reproductive autonomy and medical safety in the South Dakota Constitution!
p.s.: The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota endorses that UN report. Thus, the ACLU of SD ought to endorse the Roe v. Wade petition, right?
Nothing wrong with South Dakotas Abortion reguations….they serve the purpose of regulating abortion, and restricting it to selected medical emergencies
Since no foetus in the US has any civil rights the protections afforded to pregnant patients by Roe against Wade simply don’t go far enough to protect the people who actually earned those rights so it seems unlikely the American Civil Liberties Union would concur with the limits Roe enshrined.
I have to love when the richest nation on earth has to be reminded when it is acting like a third-world nation.
MLZ: they serve the GOP theocracy.
Mikey Lee wanks just thinking about abortions and s**t.
And fine-boned, scrawny-stached nick fuentes.
Mr. PP released his first batch of top political stories of the year, as is the tradition, and neither grudznick nor Mr. Zitteritch were included in entries 6-10. To be fair to us, Mr. H didn’t make it yet either. Maybe one of us will be in entries 1-5.