The United Nations Human Rights Committee wants to define abortion and assisted suicide as a human right. The Committee outlined the position in an advanced, unedited version of a ‘general comment’ on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. A “General Comment” is a UN agency’s interpretation of the provisions of the treaties to which it is a party. Nothing in any UN document mentions either abortion or assisted suicide.

The comment says that States must guarantee “safe, legal and effective” access to abortion when the life of the pregnant woman is at risk, or when carrying the pregnancy to term could cause her pain or suffering, “most notably where the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or is not viable.”

The document also argues that States “may not regulate pregnancy or abortion in all other cases in a manner that runs contrary to their duty to ensure that women and girls do not have to undertake unsafe abortions, and they should revise their abortion laws accordingly.”

It calls for the decriminalisation of abortion, both for women and doctors providing them and the elimination of ‘barriers’ to access, “including barriers caused as a result of the exercise of conscientious objection by individual medical providers.”

In addition, the draft comment Crux had access to also calls on States to allow medical professionals to provide treatment to “facilitate the termination of life of afflicted adults, such as those who are terminally ill, who experience severe physical or mental pain and suffering and who wish to die with dignity.”