Abortion bans violate human rights, Amnesty International says in new report

For nearly 50 years in the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court asserted that the U.S. Constitution protected the right to access abortion under Roe v. Wade. “As we detailed in the report, there are less and less doctors that want to go to states where they're going to be criminalized for providing abortion care.” In the report, Amnesty says that by failing to ensure that abortion care is accessible and affordable, the United States is “failing to comply with international human rights laws and standards to ensure pregnant individuals have equal access to abortion information services.” Want more health and science stories in your inbox? “Kim’s mother did not even know that an exception for rape existed under the criminal abortion law.” Exceptions typically have a “multitude of very specific requirements,” Sidhu told Salon. “If I live in rural Oklahoma and I can't access an abortion unless I travel hundreds of miles, then I'm facing an undue burden compared to somebody who maybe, for example, lives in Washington, D.C.” We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism The report emphasized that there is a disparate impact of abortion restrictions, highlighting how systemic and structural racism prohibit people from equal access to health insurance. “For Black women, these bans represent a denial of abortion care to a constituency who, due to longstanding discrimination and ongoing challenges accessing comprehensive reproductive healthcare, seek abortions at a higher rate than any other group, and are already suffering far higher rates of maternal mortality,” the report states.