Abortion Contraception Pregnancy and Maternal Health Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council Reproductive Rights
Read SiX’s Submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of the United States Signed by Over 200 State Legislators in 45 States
The State Innovation Exchange (SiX) has filed a submission to the United Nation’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process outlining the United States’s human rights violations in sexual, reproductive, and maternal health and denouncing the federal government for failing to uphold the commitments it made during the previous UPR review. This is the first time that SiX has asked legislators to sign-on to a stakeholder submission as part of the process that seeks input from non-profit organizations and other stakeholders for consideration.
“As the United States has regressed on its commitment to protect reproductive and human rights, state legislators are stepping forward to fill the void,” said Jennifer Driver, Senior Director, Reproductive Rights, State Innovation Exchange. “State legislators are keenly aware of the impact the patchwork of state policies has on people both in their states and across state borders. Despite clear human rights standards that prohibit criminal abortion laws, new laws in a number of states put criminal penalties in place. In large areas of the country, this has put clinicians and people seeking abortion care in a state of confusion and fear, even in the direst of circumstances. With the lack of federal protections, state lawmakers have a crucial role to play in ensuring that the United States lives up to its human rights obligations.”