REPROHEALTHLAW Updates – Autumn 2022

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DEVELOPMENTS

COLOMBIA: Corte Constitucional [Constitutional Court] February 21, 2022, Sentencia C-055-22.  27-page Spanish communicado.  27-page unofficial English translation.  Nota de Prensa (Spanish).   Download unofficial English translation.  (Abortion is decriminalized within 24 weeks of gestation.]

INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS – EL SALVADOR Manuela et al. v. El Salvador,  Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No 441. (November 2, 2021).  Decision in English.. Backup copy. Decision in Spanish.  Backup copy in Spanish..Comment by Centre for Reproductive Rights.  [El Salvador was held accountable for the arbitrary detention, torture, and conviction of a woman after obstetric emergency and loss of pregnancy in 2008. Convicted of “aggravated homicide.” Two years later, Manuela died from cancer, in prison.]

KENYA: PAK & Salim Mohammed v. Attorney General & 3 Others (Constitutional Petition E009 of 2020) [2022] KEHC 262 (KLR) (24 March 2022) (High Court of Kenya at Malindi)  Decision online.   Backup copy.    Press release by CRR. [Abortion care is a fundamental constitutional right. Arrests of patients and clinicians are illegal. Parliament is directed to align law and policy with the Constitution.]

MEXICO: AI 148/2017 Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación 2021,  Acción de inconstitucionalidad AI 148/2017, Sept 7, 2021  Decision in Spanish.   News report in English.   Official press release in Spanish.  Official press release in English.  [Criminalizing abortion is unconstitutional; state interests in protecting fetus cannot outweigh the reproductive rights of women.]

MEXICO AI 106/2018: Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación [Supreme Court] 2021, Acción de inconstitucionalidad AI 106/2018 and 107/2018), Sept. 7, 2021.  Decision in Spanish.  Official press release in English.  [States may not establish a right to life from the moment of conception in their local constitutions]

MEXICO AI 54/2018: Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación 2021, Acción de inconstitucionalidad AI 54/2018, Sept 21, 2021.   Decision in Spanish.  Decision backup.    Official press release in English.  [This ruling struck down part of the General Law regulating health services nationwide, because it established an expansive right to conscientious objection by medical personnel, without establishing the limits necessary to ensure patients’ rights to healthcare.]

NEW ZEALAND: High Court decision in NZ Health Professionals’ Alliance v Attorney-General, Sept. 24, 2021, upholds sections of the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977 (‘CSAA’), amended in the Abortion Legislation Act 2020, regarding conscientious objectors’ duty to refer and (within reason) accommodation of objecting employees. News report.  Decision online. Commentary on decision. 

NORTHERN IRELAND Judicial review by Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission: In re NIHRC (Abortion), “In the matter of an application by The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission for Judicial Review – In the matter of the failure by the Secretary of State, Executive Committee and Minister of Health to provide women with access to Abortion and Post Abortion Care in All Public Health Facilities in Northern Ireland [2021] NIQB 91 Delivered 14 October 2021.    Decision online.  Backup copy.    Official Summary.  News story.   [Secretary of State failed to comply with 2019 Act  to “expeditiously” provide women in Northern Ireland with access to high quality abortion and post abortion services].

POLAND: Applications have been filed before the European Court of Human Rights by more than 1,000 Polish women who were denied abortions or who postponed their reproductive decisions out of fear. [because of the Constitutional Tribunal’s October 2020 ruling that disallowed abortion in cases of severe and irreversible fetal defects. Result: almost total ban on abortion.] Human Rights Watch report.

POLAND: “Izabel”, 22-weeks pregnant, died of septic shock in Sept 2021 while doctors waited for her doomed fetus to die within her.  Washington Post Nov 2021 article. Mass protests focused on the Oct 2020 abortion ban ruling, but, so far, only hospital and staff have been held accountable. Notes from Poland, Sept. 2022.

UNITED STATES: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. _ (2022) (Supreme Court of the United States), held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. Case summary by CRR. Amicus brief by Martha Davis et al. IJGO article and other amicus briefs.

NEW INTERNATIONAL ABORTION CARE GUIDELINE

[WHO] Abortion Care Guideline (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2022). Chapter 2 discusses Law and Policy.
Download the Guideline, or see Overview and Supplementary resources.

SCHOLARSHIP

[abortion law, France] [Why and how to constitutionalize abortion law]: ‘Pourquoi et comment constitutionaliser le droit à l’avortement,” par Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez, Diane Roman et Serge Slama, La Revue des Droits de l’Homme, Actualités Droits-Libertés | 2022 Juillet 2022. Full text in French.

[abortion law, Latin America] “Pushing Past the Tipping Point: Can the Inter-American System Accommodate Abortion Rights?” by Patricia Palacios Zuloaga, Human Rights Law Review 21.4 (Dec 2021): 899–934. Abstract and Article.

“Abortion Lawfare in Latin America: Some Reading Keys for a Changing Scenario, ” special issue eds. Catarina Barbieri, Camila Gianella, Maria Defago, and Marta Machado (2021) Rev. Direito GV vol. 17 no 3, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Epub Dec 15, 2021. Overview and three articles in English.

[abortion law, Mexico] “The Decriminalization of Abortion: A Landmark Decision by the Mexican Supreme Court,” by Joy Monserrat Ochoa Martínez,and Roberto Niembro Ortega, I-CONnect Blog, Posted: 12 Oct 2021. Expert comment.

[abortion law, Poland] “The Scales of the European Court of Human Rights: Abortion Restriction in Poland, the European Consensus, and the State’s Margin of Appreciation,” by Julia Kapelańska-Pręgowska, Health and Human Rights Journal 23.2 (Dec 2021): 213-224. Abstract and article.

[abortion law, USA] “The state of abortion rights in the US,” by Martha F. Davis. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 159.1 (Oct 2022): 324-329 Abstract online. Article: free access .

[abortion law, USA] Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v. Wade to the Present, by Mary Ziegler. (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Publisher’s abstract.

“Conscientious Objection and the Duty to Refer,” by Bernard M. Dickens, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 2021; 155: 556-560. PDF at Wiley Online.  Submitted Text at SSRN.

[conscientious objection: Argentina] “Regulating Conscientious Objection to Legal Abortion in Argentina: Taking into Consideration Its Uses and Consequences,” by Agustina Ramón Michel, Stephanie Kung, Alyse López-Salm, and Sonia Ariza Navarrete, Health and Human Rights Journal 22.2 (Dec 2020): 271 – 384. Abstract and article.

[Conscientious objection: South Africa, nurses] “Power dynamics in the provision of legal abortion : a feminist perspective on nurses and conscientious objection in South Africa” by Satang Nabaneh, Doctoral Thesis (LLD)–University of Pretoria, 2020, now online: Doctoral thesis – 290 pages.

Conscientious Objection / The Right to Conscience, an annotated bibliography, updated Feb. 15, 2021 Conscience Bibiography.

[Conscientious objection] Global Map of Norms regarding Conscientious Objection, a searchable interactive map for comparative law, by Agustina Ramón Michel (coordinator) and Dana Repka (CEDES / REDAAS) with the support of Ipas and the ELA team. Updated December 15, 2022: Global Map of Norms re Conscientious Objection.

“Contested Rights: Abortion and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the United Nations,” by Erin Aylward, Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, Canada, Nov. 2020. Abortion/SOGI thesis.

[migrants] “International migrants’ right to sexual and reproductive health care,” by Y. Y. Brandon Chen, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 2022;157: 210–215  PDF at Wiley online.  Submitted Text at SSRN. 

US-focused news, resources, and legal developments are available  on Repro Rights Prof Blog. View or subscribe.

JOBS
Links to employers in the field of Reproductive and Sexual Health Law are online here.
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Compiled by: the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca.   See Program website for our Publications,  Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series.  TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of our blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.

REPROHEALTHLAW Updates – Feb/March 2020

SUBSCRIBE TO REPROHEALTHLAW: To receive these updates bi-monthly by email, enter your address in upper right corner of this webpage, then check your email to confirm the subscription.

DEVELOPMENTS

[CEDAW] S.F.M. v. Spain. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women urges reparations to a woman who suffered lasting physical and mental trauma during childbirth, and recommends public policies to combat obstetric violence (verbal or physical abuse or mistreatment during childbirth). CEDAW/C/75/D/138/2018, Decision of 28 Feb 2020. Press release. Decision in Spanish.

[Colombia] Constitutional Court declines to consider anti-choice petition, allowing three exceptions to criminal law against abortion to continue. March 2, 2020. Expediente D-13225, Boletín No. 25:     Decision in Spanish.  News article in English.  Safe Abortion article in English.

[England]: Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has approved “Temporary approval for home use for both stages of early medical abortion” (up to 10 weeks), due to COVID-19 pandemic. Government announcement, March 30, 2020. RCOG Guidance for Health Professionals, version 1, March 21, 2020.

European Court of Human Rights dismisses complaint of conscientious objector who could not secure job as a midwife in Sweden. Case of Grimmark v. Sweden,   App. No. 43726/17, Eur. Ct. H.R. (2020)  Decision online.  Backup copy. Overview by Prof. Bernard M. Dickens.

New Zealand decriminalizes abortion, reclassifying it as a medical procedure, available on request within first 20 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion Legislation Act 2020 (2020/6) received royal assent March 23, 2020. New legislation. News report.

Northern Ireland – will allow abortion on request within 12 weeks, March 31, 2020. “A new legal framework for abortion services in Northern Ireland: Implementation of the legal duty under section 9 of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019. UK government document. BBC news report.

[Thailand] Constitutional Court ruled that Criminal Code section 301 concerning penalties for abortion violates the 2017 Constitution sections 27, 28, which endorse equal rights between men and women, as well as the right and liberty of everyone in his/her life and person. Decision of February 19, 2020, summarized in: News report.

SCHOLARSHIP

[Abortion, Australia (NSW)] “Abortion Decriminalisation in New South Wales: An Analysis of the Abortion Law Reform Act 2019 (NSW), by Anna Walsh and Tiana Legge, Journal of Law and Medicine, 30 Nov 2019, 27(2):325-337 Article online.

[abortion, Australia (SA)] “Abortion: A Review of South Australian Law and Practice,” by the Southern Australian Law Reform Institute(SALRI), Report 13 (October 2019), submitted to Attorney General Dec. 5, 2019, recommendations for planned decriminalization. 506-page report. News report.

[abortion, Belgium] “Late Termination of Pregnancy in Belgium: Exploring Its Legality and Scope,” byFien De Meyer – European Journal of Health Law 27.1 (2020): 9-34 Abstract and Article.

[abortion law, Canada] “When there are no abortion laws: A case study of Canada,” by Dorothy Shaw, Wendy V. Norman, Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology 62 (Jan. 2020): 49-62. Abstract and related resources. Article online.

“Abortion in Ireland,” Feminist Review 124.1 (March 2020), Special issue includes:
— Introduction to the Themed Issue,” by Sydney Calkin, Fiona de Londras, Gina Heathcote.
—[Ireland] ‘A Hope Raised and then Defeated’? the Continuing Harms of Irish Abortion Law, by Fiona de Londras
—[El Salvador] ‘Repeal the 8th’ in a Transnational Context: The Potential of SRHRs for Advancing Abortion Access in El Salvador, by Rebecca Smyth
—-[Italy] The Ambivalence of Law: Some Observations on the Denial of Access to Abortion Services in Italy, by Elena Caruso

Abortion Law Decisions webpage, with links to court decisions, updated March 2020, is online here in English… y en Espanol.

[abortion, Mexico] “Abortion Rights and Human Rights in Mexico, by Jennifer Nelson, chapter in Reproductive Justice and Sexual Rights: Transnational Perspectives, ed. Tanya Saroj Bakhru (New York: Routledge, 2019; 264 pp. About the book.

[abortion, U.K.] “Decriminalising Abortion in the UK- What Would It Mean?” ed. Sally Sheldon and Kaye Wellings. (Bristol: Policy Press, March 23, 2020) 112 pages, Open Access book.

Women’s Health and the Limits of the Law: Domestic and International Perspectives, ed. Irehobhude O. Iyioha (Routledge, 2020), Book information. Chapters include:
—“Abortion law in China: disempowering women under the liberal regulatory model,” by Wei Wei Cao
—“Tilted interpretations,: reproductive health law and practice in the Philippines,” by Amparita Sta. Maria
—“On the margins of law: examining the limits of legislative initiatives on maternal mortality in South Africa and Nigeria,” by Arooj Shah, Simisola O. Akintola and Irehobhude O. Iyioha

US-focused news, resources, and legal developments are available  on Repro Rights Prof Blog. View or subscribe.

WEBINAR:
“COVID-19: What implications for SRHR globally?” by Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, held March 27, 2020. 100-minute video.

JOBS

Links to employers in the field of Reproductive and Sexual Health Law are online here.
______________
Compiled by: the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca.   See Program website for our Publications,  Information resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series.  TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of our blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.

European Court dismisses Swedish midwife’s complaint

Many thanks to Bernard M. Dickens, Professor Emeritus of Health Law and Policy at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, for abstracting the main issue decided by the European Court of Human Rights.

Grimmark v. Sweden,   App. No. 43726/17, European Court of Human Rights. (2020)  Decision of March 12, 2020.  Backup copy.

This decision on conscientious objection addressed a complaint against Sweden by Elinor Grimmark, a woman who had qualified as a midwife, but was denied employment as such. Because of her religious convictions, she refused to perform medical (i.e. non-surgical) abortions, but was willing to care for women requesting the procedure. In seeking employment, she disclosed her objection, which she claimed had resulted in positions being withheld or withdrawn from her, in violation of her right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion under Article 9(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 9(2) of this Convention sets limits on manifestation of religion or belief when necessary for the protection, among other interests, of the rights and freedoms of others.

Employment laws may require employers’ reasonable accommodation of employees’ conscientious objection, but Swedish law allows employers to require employees to perform all tasks naturally falling within the scope of their employment. This includes requiring midwives to perform medical abortions. Exemption for one midwife would unfairly burden another. The Court noted that Sweden provides nationwide accessible abortion services.

The Court’s task was to determine whether measures taken in Sweden, by its Discrimination Ombudsman and its Labour Court, both of which had found no violation of the complainant’s Article 9 rights, were proportionate to the interests at stake. The Court echoed its previous language on abortion services, in R.R. v. Poland (2011), that a state is obliged “to organize its health system in a way as to ensure that the effective exercise of freedom of conscience by health professionals in the professional context does not prevent the provision of such services” (para.26). The Court accordingly found that any infringement of the complainant’s freedom of religion did not violate Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
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The European Court’s 9-page decision is online here:
Decision of March 12, 2020.   Backup copy.

Related Resources:
“The Right to Conscience,” by Bernard M. Dickens, in: Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies, ed. Rebecca J. Cook, Joanna N. Erdman, and Bernard M. Dickens (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014) pp. 210-238, 425-429n. Abstract online. About the book in English y en español.

Conscientious Objection / The Right to Conscience – annotated bibliography, updated March 17, 2020.
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Compiled by: the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca.   See Program website for our Publications,  Information resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series.  TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of our blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.

REPROHEALTHLAW Updates – March 2018

SUBSCRIBE TO REPROHEALTHLAW: To receive these updates monthly by email, enter your address in upper right corner of this webpage, then check your email to confirm the subscription.

SCHOLARSHIP:

“Abortion by telemedicine in Northern Ireland: patient and professional rights across borders,” by Tamara Hervey and Sally Sheldon. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly (2017) 68.1: 1-33    Article online.  Submitted Text.

Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies, ed. Rebecca J. Cook, Joanna N. Erdman and Bernard M. Dickens (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014),  Table of Contents with chapter summaries.     Table of Cases.   English edition. now  in paperback, 20% discount code PH70. —–Spanish edition:  El aborto en el derecho transnacional: casos y controversias,  ed. Rebecca J. Cook, Joanna N. Erdman y Bernard M. Dickens (Mexico: FCE/CIDE, 2016)   En espanol, 2016: Fondo de Cultura Económica y Libreria CIDE.   Índice con resúmenes de todos capítulos    Tabla de jurisprudencia.

Abortion Law Decisions online, a Table of Cases with links.  English.   Spanish.

[abortion law, South Korea]  A critical assessment of abortion law and its implementation in South Korea, by Hyosin Kim & Hyun-A Bae, Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, 24.1 (2018): 71-87, Abstract and article.

“Access to Abortion in Cases of Fatal Fetal Abnormality: A New Direction for the European Court of Human Rights?” by Dr. Bríd Ní Ghráinne,  and Dr Aisling McMahon,  (March 12, 2018). 31-page working paper

[Africa] Legal Grounds III: Reproductive and Sexual Rights in Sub-Saharan African Courts  (Pretoria, Pretoria University Law Press (PULP), 2017).  PDF 228 page book.  Previous volumes online at CRR.      Printed edition from PULP.
Online edition with links to decisions and updates.

Breaking Ground 2018: Treaty Monitoring Bodies on Reproductive Rights, 3rd edition, by the Center for Reproductive Rights, summarizes United Nations jurisprudence, especially the standards being adopted on reproductive health information and contraception, maternal health care, and abortion.  54 page report.

[Chile] Landmark abortion law ruling by Constitutional Court of Chile, August 28, 2017 is now in English with its official synthesis and a table of contents.   Decision translated to English    Amicus curiae briefs also in English:  (1)  decriminalization of abortion Spanish and English;   (2) conscience and conscientious objection:  Spanish  and English.
Spanish Decision “Descargar Sentencia”.   Accompanying documents.  Submissions.      Síntesis.

“The Costs of Conscience,” by Micah Schwartzman, Nelson Tebbe, and Richard Schragger (March 2018) Virginia Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 2018-14.  Abstract and article. 

FIGO Bioethics Curriculum:  Introduction to Principles and Practice of Bioethics: Case Studies in Women’s Health, now in Spanish.  Table of Contents and List of Case Studies.   Curriculum in English.  Curriculum in Spanish

“Reproductive Autonomy of Women and Girls under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,”  by Prof. Charles Ngwena, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 140.1 (Jan. 2018):128-133.  PDF online for 12 months.    Submitted Text.

Reproductive Health and Human Rights:  Integrating Medicine, Ethics and Law, (Oxford University Press, 2003)  Portuguese, 602 pages and Spanish (both now free online).    English  (through Oxford Scholarship Online)  French paperback.     Case Studies in Arabic online

US-focused news, resources, and legal developments are available  on Repro Rights Prof Blog.   View or subscribe.

NEWS:

Ireland:  May 25th 2018 date for Referendum on abortion “Voters will be asked if they want to repeal article 40.3.3 – known as the eighth amendment – which since 1983 has given unborn foetuses and pregnant women an equal right to life . . . enshrining a ban on abortion in the country’s constitution.”  If repealed, government will allow abortion within 12 weeks of pregnancy. Guardian newspaper

Paraguay’s harsh abortion law endangers adolescents.  Raped 14-year-old girl with pregnancy complications dies during caesarean section to save baby.  Human Rights Watch report

 

JOBS

Links to employers in the field of Reproductive and Sexual Health Law are online here

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Compiled by the Coordinator of the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca For Program publications and resources, see our website, online here. TO JOIN THIS BLOG: enter your email address in upper right corner of this webpage, then check your email to confirm the subscription.

“El giro procesal: El aborto en el Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos” por Joanna Erdman

[For Abstracts of original English edition, click here]

En El aborto en el derecho transnacional: Casos y controversias (FCE/CIDE, 2016),  los primeros cinco capítulos  exploran “Valores Constitucionales y Regímenes Normativos.” Los tres capítulos de la segunda parte, “Justicia procesal y acceso liberalizado,” ahondan en la relación entre las leyes sobre aborto y lo que ocurre en la práctica. El enfoque yace en la preocupación, dentro del ámbito del derecho, sobre el uso de la justicia procedimental para garantizar el acceso de las mujeres a servicios de aborto legal. Se argumenta que la legalidad de los servicios es una condición previa necesaria para su accesibilidad. Sin embargo, si las mujeres no conocen sus derechos y no cuentan con los medios para ejercerlos, los servicios a los que tienen derecho se mantendrán fuera de su alcance. La proposición histórica del derecho común, de que los derechos legales sustantivos emergen de los resquicios procedimentales, es relevante hoy en día. El acceso de las mujeres al aborto legal y seguro depende de que ellas y los proveedores de servicios conozcan verdaderamente las causales legales, las condiciones en las que pueden brindarse los abortos legítimamente, así como también los procedimientos legales y las revisiones y apelaciones en caso de un desacuerdo en cuanto a si se cumplen las causales en un caso particular. Los autores de la segunda parte exploran las promesas e incertidumbres de la justicia procedimental en las normativas sobre el aborto desde tres perspectivas geográficas distintas.

Joanna Erdman, “El giro procesal: El aborto en el Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos,” El aborto en el derecho transnacional: Casos y controversias, editoras/es  Rebecca J. Cook, Joanna N. Erdman, y Bernard M. Dickens (FCE/CIDE, 2016) págs. 159-186. en español y  en inglés.

Joanna Erdman explora el giro procesal de la Corte Europea de Derechos Humanos, cuestionando la posibilidad y la forma en que las leyes de aborto de carácter procedimental pueden servir al fin sustantivo que los defensores le asignan: el acceso a los servicios. La autora comienza con el complejo factor de la discreción en las leyes sobre el aborto, mediante el cual se niegan servicios a los que las mujeres tienen derech. Cuando se cuestiona el poder discrecional, las pretensiones procesales referentes a los estándares, la revisión y la supervisión amenazan con restringir, en vez de ampliar, el acceso y, por tanto, impiden que la promesa liberadora del giro procesal se concrete.

Erdman busca redimir esta ambivalencia mediante un cambio de enfoque y propone contemplar el giro procesal desde la perspectiva, ya no de los defensores, sino de una corte internacional que busque provocar cambios en un asunto de profundo interés democrático. Las normativas procesales quizá sirvan como herramienta para que la Corte Europea respete la pluralidad de leyes sobre aborto basadas en derechos en Europa, pues colaboran con el Estado en vez de obrar en su contra, reclutando sus fuerzas e instituciones democráticas en la protección efectiva del derecho al aborto. En un cambio de perspectiva final, Erdman pone a prueba esta teoría en la práctica, sirviéndose de Irlanda como caso de estudio. Así, la autora examina el impacto de los derechos procesales en el acceso a los servicios, contemplando el papel de la legislatura, los médicos y las mujeres.

El aborto en el derecho transnacional: casos y controversias es disponible en español    en inglés   y dos capítulos en portugués: Capítulo 2.    Capítulo 4
Descargar: Reseña del libro en Andamios, por Diego Garcia Ricci      
Introducción y Prólogo.
Índice con resúmenes de otros capítulos

Tabla de Casos/Jurisprudencia en línea con enlaces a muchas de las decisiones judiciales
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I.V. v. Bolivia decision: Forced sterilization is based on harmful gender stereotypes

Many thanks to Christina Zampas, a Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, for summarizing this decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.  She also presented oral expert testimony in this case during its hearing on 2 May 2016 in San Jose, Costa Rica, focusing on international and regional human rights standards in relation to informed consent to sterilization, and on gender discrimination and stereotyping. (Overview of her testimony.)

Caso I.V. v. Bolivia,   Sentencia de 30  Noviembre de 2016 (Excepciones Preliminares, Fondo, Reparaciones y Costas) Corte InterAmericana de Derechos Humanos  Decision in Spanish.

I.V. v Bolivia concerns the involuntary sterilization in 2000 of an immigrant woman from Peru in a public hospital in Bolivia during a caesarean section.   In its first case alleging forced sterilization and indeed, its first case on informed consent to a medical procedure, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights struck at the heart of such practices by addressing underlying causes of such violations: gender discrimination and stereotyping.

The Court held that the State violated the woman’s rights to personal integrity, personal freedom, private and family life, access to information and rights to found a family, and to be free from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to the dignity of a human being, all contained in the American Convention on Human Rights.  The State had also violated its duties to condemn all forms of violence against women under the Convention of Belem do Pará.   In finding these violations, the Court recognized that sterilization without consent annulled the right to freely make decisions regarding one’s body and reproductive capacity, resulting in loss of control over one’s most personal and intimate decisions, with lasting implications.

While generally agreeing with decisions about forced sterilization of Roma women issued by the European Court of Human Rights and the CEDAW Committee , the Inter-American Court’s decision is groundbreaking in that it uniquely highlighted the transcendent role of state obligations to respect and guarantee the right to non-discrimination in the context of women’s human rights violations. Thus, the Court recognized that the freedom and autonomy of women in sexual and reproductive health, generally, has historically been limited or annulled on the basis of negative and harmful gender stereotypes in which women have been socially and culturally viewed as having a predominantly reproductive function, and men viewed as decision-makers over women’s bodies. The Court recognized that non-consensual sterilization reflects this historically unequal relationship. The Court noted how the process of informed decision-making operated under the harmful stereotype that I.V., as a woman, was unable to make such decisions responsibly, leading to “an unjustified paternalistic medical intervention” restricting her autonomy and freedom.  The Court thus found a violation of the right to non-discrimination based on being a woman. It also stressed the particular vulnerability to forced sterilization facing certain women, based on other characteristics such as socioeconomic status, race, disability, or living with HIV.

The Court ordered both individual reparations and general measures, including ensuring education and training programs for healthcare and social security professionals regarding informed consent, gender-based violence, discrimination and stereotyping.  The Court’s unequivocal articulation of the right of women to make decisions concerning reproductive health, without being subjected to discrimination based on stereotypes or power relations, is important in this first case by an international or regional tribunal addressing this in the context of sterilization.  It could also apply to other reproductive health care contexts, such as the case for abortion.

Links for this case:

Caso I.V. v. Bolivia,   Sentencia de 30  Noviembre de 2016 (Excepciones Preliminares, Fondo, Reparaciones y Costas) Corte InterAmericana de Derechos Humanos  Decision in Spanish
Report on the Merits (2014) in English.

Amicus Curiae brief by Ciara O’Connell, Diana Guarnizo-Peralta and Cesar Rodriguez-Garavito:  in English.

Related decisions, alluded to above:
V.C. v. Slovakia, European Court of Human Rights (Decision 8 November 2011)
N.B. v. Slovakia,  European Court of Human Rights (Decision 12 June 2012)
VC and NB decisions, summarized by Andy Sprung
I.G. and others v. Slovakia  European Court of Human Rights (Decision 13 November 2012).
IG decision, summarized by Andy Sprung

UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
A.S. v. Hungary  (Decision online).
Summary  and documents from CRR.
Analysis by Simone Cusack, OP CEDAW blog.
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Compiled by the Coordinator of the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca.   For Program publications and resources, see our website, online here.     TO JOIN THIS BLOG: enter your email address in upper right corner of this webpage, then check your email to confirm the subscription.

Using Human Rights to Require African States to Implement Abortion Laws

Congratulations to Prof. Charles Ngwena, whose new article has just been published in the Journal of African Law.

Charles G. Ngwena, “Taking Women’s Rights Seriously: Using Human Rights to Require State Implementation of Domestic Abortion Laws in African Countries with Reference to Uganda,” Journal of African Law 60.1 (Feb 2016): 110-140. 

Abstract:  This article is constructed around the premise that women’s rights to safe abortion give rise to obligations that the state has a positive duty to implement. Using Uganda as a case study, it frames failure by a state to implement its abortion laws in ways that render the rights tangible and accessible to women as a violation of human rights. The article develops a normative human rights framework for imposing on a state the obligation to take positive steps to implement abortion laws that the state, itself, has adopted. The framework does not depend on requiring the state first to reform its substantive laws or broaden the grounds for abortion. Rather, it focuses on the implementation of existing domestic laws. The article draws its remedial juridical responses partly from conceptions of women-centred rights to procedural justice, equality and health, and partly from jurisprudence developed in recent years by United Nations treaty-monitoring bodies and the European Court of Human Rights.

The full text of this article is available from the printed journal, or online here through subscribing libraries.

“Reforming African Abortion Laws and Practice: The Place of Transparency” by Charles G. Ngwena

 

Charles G. Ngwena, “Reforming African Abortion Laws and Practice: The Place of Transparency” Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies ed. Rebecca J. Cook, Joanna N. Erdman, and Bernard M. Dickens (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014) pp 166-186, notes 419-422.  A Spanish edition was published in August, 2016.  Ahora disponible en español.

Unsafe abortion that is linked to criminalization of abortion remains a major public health and human rights challenge in the African region despite the liberalization of laws over the past few decades. In this ninth chapter of Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective, Charles Ngwena draws principally on decisions of United Nations treaty bodies and also references decisions of the European Court of Human Rights to illustrate the potential of the procedural turn for facilitating access to lawful abortion in Africa. He sets out a case for how rendering states accountable for lack of effective implementation of existing legal grounds can be an important juridical tool to secure access to safe abortion for African women. He finds that states no longer satisfy individuals’ human rights by simply broadening the grounds for lawful abortion, but must actively create identifiable means by which women can access, and providers deliver, lawful services. He explores whether the guidelines on safe abortion promulgated by ministries of health in certain African countries meet the procedural standards. The legitimacy of such guidelines would be more substantial if they had the support of ministries of justice and offices of attorneys general, and their assurances that there will be no prosecutions where abortions are procured safely with due regard to the rights and dignity of women.

The final sections of this chapter evaluate how international requirements of transparency apply to the African region, highlighting its transformative potential as well as its limits within a post-colonial environment where, long after attaining Independence, abortion is still criminalized and patterned on colonial laws in several states. Ultimately, transparency serves a pragmatic jurisprudential strategy for working within a largely constraining legal environment that has yet to concede radical reform of abortion law, or allow mid-level health care professionals to provide abortion services.

Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies was published in August 2014 by the University of Pennsylvania Press’s Studies in Human Rights Series.   Table of Contents and other information online.    A Spanish edition was published in August, 2016.  Ahora disponible en español.

“The Procedural Turn: Abortion at the European Court of Human Rights” by Joanna Erdman

In Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies (U Penn Press, 2014),  Part I, “Constitutional Values and Regulatory Regimes,” flows logically into Part II, “Procedural Justice and Liberal Access,” which develops the relationship between abortion law and practice, focusing on the prospects of procedural justice to secure women’s access to lawful services. Legality of services is a necessary precondition to service accessibility. However, unless women are aware of their legal rights and have the means to exercise them, the services to which they are lawfully entitled will remain beyond their reach. The historical proposition of the Common law that substantive legal rights emerged within the interstices of procedure remains relevant today. Women’s access to safe, lawful abortion depends on two factors: (1) women and service providers must actually know the legal grounds and the conditions under which abortion services may lawfully be rendered and (2) there must be legal procedures of timely review and appeal in the event of disagreement on whether the grounds are met in an individual case. The authors of Part II explore the promises and uncertainties of procedural justice in abortion law from three different geographic vantage points.

Joanna Erdman, “The Procedural Turn: Abortion at the European Court of Human Rights,” Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies ed. Rebecca J. Cook, Joanna N. Erdman, and Bernard M. Dickens (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014) pp. 121-142, notes 410-415.  A Spanish edition was published in August, 2016.  Ahora disponible en español.

In this sixth chapter of the book, Joanna Erdman explores the procedural turn at the European Court of Human Rights, asking whether and how procedural abortion rights can serve the substantive end that advocates claim for them: access to services. She begins with a complicating factor of discretion in abortion law, through which women may be denied services to which they are entitled, or granted services to which they are not. When discretion is challenged in the latter case, procedural claims for standards, review, and oversight threaten to restrict rather than enlarge access and thereby to confound the liberalizing promise of the procedural turn. Erdman looks to redeem this ambivalence by shifting focus, asking about the procedural turn from the perspective not of the advocate, but of an international court seeking to engender change on an issue of deep democratic conflict. Procedural rights may serve as a means for the European Court to respect the plurality of rights-based norms on abortion in Europe by working through rather than against the state, enlisting its democratic forces and its institutions in the effective protection of abortion rights. In a final shift of perspective, Erdman tests this theory in practice, asking about the impact of procedural rights on access to services as mediated through the ambitions and actions of legislatures, doctors, and women themselves, using Ireland as her case study.

Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies was published in August 2014 by the University of Pennsylvania Press’s Studies in Human Rights Series.   Table of Contents and other information online. A Spanish edition was published in August, 2016.  Ahora disponible en español.

 

REPROHEALTHLAW Updates: Developments, Calls, Resources and News

REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG,  June 2014

SUBSCRIBE TO REPROHEALTHLAW:  To receive these updates monthly by email, enter your address in upper right corner of this webpage, then check your email to confirm the subscription.

DEVELOPMENTS:

United Kingdom:  Doctors will be able to approve abortions after conducting consultations over the phone or by Skype, according to new guidance  News article.

United Kingdom: A British high court judge ruled that a 13-year-old girl was mentally capable of deciding to abort her baby  News article.

CALLS AND CONFERENCES:

Call for Abstracts: Overcoming Obstacles – Towards the effective implementation of the rights of women with disabilities in Africa, Center for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Tues/Wed Nov 4-5, 2014, Submit abstract by June 15, 2014.    Call for abstracts online.

“Abortion: The Unfinished Revolution”
August 7-8,  2014 at the University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada  preliminary program   more info.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Harvard Course on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Litigation. 3-day intensive course Nov. 3-5, plus invitation to “Sexual and Reproductive Rights ‘Lawfare’ in International Tribunals,” 2-day international symposium,  on November 6-7, 2014.  Apply by July 1, 2014.  Course details online.

RESOURCES

Abortion Care, ed. Sam Rowlands, forthcoming, Cambridge University Press,  August 2014.  Paperback.  Further details.   Chapters include:
~  Abortion in international human rights law, by Joanna N. Erdman
~  the Australian experience, by Kerry Petersen
~  Stigma and issues of conscience, by Kelly R. Culwell and Caitlin Gerdts

Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective:  Cases and Controversies,  ed. Rebecca J. Cook, Joanna N. Erdman and Bernard M. Dickens, 16 chapters.  Forthcoming, University of Pennsylvania Press, August 2014.  To receive details when it is published, email reprohealth. law\at/ utoronto. ca with subject “abortion book flyer”.

[abortion – adolescents] “Sixteen and Pregnant: Minors’ Consent in Abortion and Adoption,” by Malinda L. Seymore. Yale Journal of Law & Feminism 25.1 2013. Abstract and Article.

[abortion advocacy strategy] “Using Aikido to Change the Abortion Conversation” (using quotes from bible & saints for pro-choice purposes)   by Valerie Tarico, RH Reality Check article.

[abortion – European Court of Human Rights]    “[The Judgement A, B and C v. Ireland and the Question of Abortion: A ‘New Departure’ in the European Court of Human Rights on Consensus and Margin of Appreciation?] 
= La sentencia A, B y C contra Irlanda y la cuestión del aborto: ¿Un ‘punto de inflexión’ en la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos en materia de consenso y margen de apreciación nacional?”   by Francisco Javier Mena Parras,  Anuario de Derechos Humanos No. 8, 2012, pp. 115-124.   Abstracts in Spanish and English,   Article in Spanish.

[abortion – sex selection.] “Replacing Myths with Facts: Sex-Selective Abortion Laws in the United States.”  by the International Human Rights Clinic of the University of Chicago, in partnership with National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) and Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH). (2014)   Abstract and 46-page report.

[conscience] “Religion as a Legal Proxy” by Micah Schwartzman, forthcoming,  San Diego Law Review,  Abstract and article online.

“Conscientious objection and refusal to provide reproductive healthcare: A white paper examining prevalence, health consequences, and policy responses,” by Wendy Chavkin, Liddy Leitman, and Kate Polin, for Global Doctors for Choice  69-page paper in English. now also in Spanish.
—“ ‘Dishonourable disobedience’ – Why refusal to treat in reproductive healthcare is not conscientious objection” by Christian Fiala and  Joyce H. Arthur, forthcoming  in Woman – Psychosomatic Gynaecology and Obstetrics, proofs online
—Followup blogpost: “Competing Rights: Exploring the Boundaries of ‘Conscientious Objection” by Wendy Chavkin online at RH Reality Check.

[divorce – Philippines] “Reintroduction of Divorce in the Philippines,” LL.M. thesis by Jihan Jacob.  Abstract online, with author’s contact information

Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health – 65 articles published in the International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics  available online, including Reducing Stigma in Reproductive Health, and  Noninvasive pre-natal genetic diagnosis .

[Poland] 6th Congress of Women, May 9-10, 2014, Warsaw, Poland, 10 demands include:  “Recognition of women’s rights to make decisions concerning reproduction, including right to sex education for everyone introduced in primary school.” presented to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.  Demands online.

[sterilization] Eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization – An interagency statement by OHCHR, UN Women, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO, May 2014, 17 page report

[women’s rights] “Women’s Charters and Declarations: Building Another World,” by Rashida Manjoo (United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women)  (London: Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), 2013)  89-page report 

[wrongful birth – Canada] “Supressing Damages in Involuntary Parenthood Actions: Contorting Tort Law, Denying Reproductive Freedom, and Discriminating Against Mothers” by Bruce Feldthusen, (working paper, May 5, 2014).

NEWS

[child marriage – Pakistan] Bill prohibiting child marriage now a law.  News report

Chile Might Change One Of The Most Restrictive Abortion Laws In The World.    News Article.  Later article.

[embryos] European Commission will not stop financing activities that destroy embryos.  Reply to “One of Us” initiative, may 28, 2014.  Press release in many languages.

[Guyana]  Plans being refined to offer abortion service at public hospitals – Chief Medical Officer says.  News article.

Jamaican MP, Dayton Campbell, a medical doctor and lawyer, advocates reform of “ancient” abortion laws –  June 1, 2014  newspaper article.

[polygamy – Kenya]   President Uhuru Kenyatta Signs controversial law legalizing the longstanding customary practice of polygamy.
BBC Report .  CNN Report.

[Senegal]  11-year-old girl, refused abortion after rape, gives birth prematurely to twins. News article.

US-focused news, resources, and legal developments are available on Repro Rights Prof Blog.  View or subscribe.

JOBS

Links to other employers in the field of Reproductive and Sexual Health Law are online here

Compiled by the Coordinator of the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca   For Program publications and resources, see our website, online here. TO JOIN THIS BLOG: enter your email address in upper right corner of this webpage,, then check your email to confirm the subscription.