Abortion Rights as Human Rights

This essay maps how human rights have helped advance abortion rights, and it explores the relationship between human rights discourses and abortion access in jurisdictions with under-resourced health systems. The first part describes the incorporation of abortion rights in international human rights documents and in the opinions and reports of human rights bodies. The second part discusses why courts increasingly cite human rights texts in national opinions, noting courts’ invocation of universal values, consensus on limited abortion permission, and state duties to protect women’s rights. The third part examines on-the-ground obstacles to implementing court judgments and national abortion laws. This essay argues that human rights reasoning, rooted in claims to universalism and modernity, may minimize the problems that follow legal change, particularly in places with weak health-care infrastructures. The conclusion considers public health law research that keeps in view the differences among countries’ health-care systems.