Christian legal advocacy group the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) has welcomed moves by the UN to recognise “coerced” abortion as a form of violence against mothers.
Earlier this year the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, presented a report which stated, "Despite the fundamental role and contributions of mothers, no UN organization or mechanism, at least none that I am aware of, has produced a global stand alone report on mothers as a distinct category of persons whose lives and experiences including experiences of violence are profoundly shaped by this intersection of being both female and mothers.”
The ECLJ said the report was “unprecedented” in that it was the first time coerced abortion was “condemned under international law”.
In her report, Alsalem also described motherhood as a “public good” as opposed to a “private choice” and that, as such, mothers required “recognition and support from society and institutions”.
Alsalem’s report also distinguished between “forced” and “coerced” abortion, with the former being brought about by the use or threat of physical force, and the latter being driven by societal pressures, economic realities and a host of other factors.
She urged all UN member states to “promote the social significance of motherhood and the shared responsibility to support mothers within sex, family, civic and other relevant education curricula and through public awareness-raising campaigns”, and to ensure that women who wish to become mothers could “do so in conditions of dignity and safety”.
The report called for a legal ban on coerced or forced abortion, including for sex or disability selective reasons.
The ECLJ said it was “pleased that a nuanced and realistic perspective is now included in a UN document".
"This demonstrates that the view promoted by so many so-called ‘feminists’ - which presents abortion solely as synonymous with women’s right to autonomy and control over their own bodies - is ideological," it said.
“This amounts to nothing less than denying the suffering of all those women who would like to give birth to the child they are carrying but are pushed into having an abortion due to the pressures of the circumstances surrounding their pregnancy.
"For them, this act is not synonymous with freedom, choice, rights, or autonomy: it is an act of violence perpetrated against them - a fact that this report finally and explicitly acknowledges.”
