"For many years, our human rights reports contained a section on reproductive health, including information about maternal morality, discrimination against women in accessing sexual and reproductive health care, and government policies about access to contraception and skilled health care during pregnancy and childbirth," Blinken stated on Tuesday.
Blinken said that he asked for an addendum on reproductive health to be produced later in 2021. “And we are restoring the practice of documenting these rights in 2021 and future years,” he said on Tuesday.
Pro-life leaders have warned that the term “sexual and reproductive health” commonly includes abortion and contraception in international diplomatic parlance; previous State Department human rights reports included information on abortion laws in their respective sections on reproductive health.
On Tuesday, Blinken mentioned steps taken by the Biden administration to resume funding of international pro-abortion groups and to withdraw from an international pro-life statement.
Biden in January repealed the Mexico City Policy, allowing U.S. global health assistance to once again fund international pro-abortion groups. The U.S. also withdrew from the Geneva Declaration, an October 2020 statement signed by the U.S. and 31 other countries stating that there is no international right to abortion.
“It is one of many steps – along with revoking the Mexico City Policy, withdrawing from the Geneva Consensus Declaration, resuming support for the United Nations Population Fund – that we are taking to promote women’s health and equity at home and abroad. Because women’s rights – including sexual and reproductive rights – are human rights,” Blinken stated.