Pro-life organizations around the world have received a tremendous boost as a result of the repeal of the United States’ constitutional safeguards for abortions, which have been criticized by world leaders and health organizations as a backward action.
The overturning of the historic Roe v. Wade decision by the supreme court was denounced by the prime ministers of Canada, France, and the United Kingdom.
Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, described the decision as “incredibly upsetting.”
She added that watching the fundamental right of a woman to control her own body being taken away was really sad.
Recently, legislation was passed in New Zealand decriminalizing abortion and treating it as a health issue rather than a criminal one.
“That change was grounded in the fundamental belief that it’s a woman’s right to choose. People are entitled to have deeply held convictions on this issue. But those personal beliefs should never rob another from making their own decisions. To see that principle now lost in the United States feels like a loss for women everywhere. When there are so many issues to tackle, so many challenges that face women and girls, we need progress, not to fight the same fights and move backward.”
Thousands of people protested against the court verdict in the streets of London and Edinburgh after Johnson also called it a major step backward.
The third-largest party in the UK parliament, the Scottish Nationalist Party, led by Nicola Sturgeon, called it one of the saddest days for women’s rights in his lifetime and added that it will empower anti-abortion and anti-women forces in other nations too.
The US federal government was encouraged by the French foreign ministry to do all possible to ensure that American women continue to have access to abortions, calling it a “health and survival issue”. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, added in a tweet that “abortion is a fundamental right of all women”.
In a tweet, former US first lady Michelle Obama expressed her heartbreak over the decision, and former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard encouraged women to keep fighting for their rights.
The decision, according to World Health Organization director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reduces both women’s rights and access to health care, and he expressed his alarm and disappointment about it on Twitter.
According to the UN body responsible for sexual and reproductive health, and statistics from throughout the world revealed that restricting access made abortion more lethal as whether it is legal or not, abortion happens all too often.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the United Nations Population Fund released a statement pointing out that its 2022 report stated that over 60% of pregnancies might result in abortion and that nearly half of all conceptions globally were unwanted.
According to Ruth Zurbriggen, an Argentine activist and member of the Companion Network of Latin America and the Caribbean, a group in favor of abortion rights, Roe v. Wade which was overturned by the court, shows that these types of rights are always at risk of being steamrolled.
Anti-abortion activists applauded the decision, as stated by senator Amalia Granata in a tweet: “There is justice again in the world. We are going to achieve this in Argentina too!!”
Anti-abortion activist Sara Larn in El Salvador expressed confidence that the decision will strengthen campaigns against the practice everywhere.
Larín, president of Fundación Vida SV, said: “I trust that with this ruling it will be possible to abolish abortion in the United States and throughout the world.”
