America: Proud to be an obstacle to global women's rights

That's right, it's freedom-loving Hijab-liberating America that is stalling international women's rights. Why? An anti-choice agenda, of course. Women's rights to their own reproductive systems have long been recognized as human rights, up there with all the other rights based on personal autonomy -- like the right not to be tortured. Countries like China and Romania have violated these rights with devastating results -- China by forcing and coercing abortion and regulating how many children women are allowed to have, and Romania by not allowing women access to family planning services. When we set a precedent where the state can control women's reproductive choices, we get into dangerous territory, as these two examples have shown. Human rights are based on the right to individual autonomy, just as reproductive rights are. If a woman cannot control her own reproductive system, she is hard-pressed to control anything else in her life. As Westerners, it can be easy to ignore the various social inequalities, cultural differences and barriers to access faced by women around the world. Not everyone has Western privilege -- including a lot of people in the Western world and the global north. When tens of thousands of women die every year because of illegal abortion, when many are prosecuted, when women and girls don't have access to basic healthcare, it is simply not acceptable to export our "morality" abroad and stall what could be a very successful event. It is not moral to push a policy that kills women.

It's also valuable to see who our co-conspirators are on this issue. We're in the company of countries like Iran and Somolia in our status as a non-signatory on CEDAW, the primary international women's rights document. Every other developed Western nation -- you know, the places that many people consider "englightened" -- is behind it. The United States' anti-choice emphasis hurts women worldwide. It's immoral. And it's unbelievable that a supposed beacon of "freedom" is willing to infringe on the freedoms and basic rights to life of more than half the world's population.

(also cross-posted at Third Wave Agenda)