Is Abortion a Human Right?

With the number of days to November now reduced to double digits, candidates for elected office are hitting the campaign trail hard to shore up support for their respective campaigns and issues they support,  Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who is running for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives,  recently released a campaign mailer claiming Republicans will ban abortion, which is referred to in the text as a human right.

"FIRST, the Trump-appointed Supreme Court reversed nearly 50 years of precedent by overturning Roe v. Wade. THEN, Senate Republicans repeatedly blocked legislation to codify access to IVF and contraceptives on the federal level. NOW, they are unapologetically running as the party of anti-choice extremists by nominating a party ticket that calls for a national abortion ban — with no exceptions. Republicans have told us time and again exactly who they are and what they stand for. Now, it's time for us to start believing them. They will not stop until they've rolled back the clock on every single one of our basic human rights. This race is about the future, not the past," the mailer says, asking for donations to her campaign, bold and italics hers.

Hyperbole is nothing new in political campaigning, as the Election of 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson aptly demonstrated.

However, no explicit definition of abortion as a human right exists.

While the Center for Reproductive Rights asserted that the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 2018 defined abortion as a human right, the body of text says the following:

"Although States parties may adopt measures designed to regulate voluntary terminations of pregnancy, such measures must not result in violation of the right to life of a pregnant woman or girl, or her other rights under the Covenant. Thus, restrictions on the ability of women or girls to seek abortion must not, inter alia, jeopardize their lives, subject them to physical or mental pain or suffering which violates article, discriminate against them or arbitrarily interfere with their privacy. States parties must provide safe, legal, and effective access to abortion where the life and health of the pregnant woman or girl is at risk and where carrying a pregnancy to term would cause the pregnant woman or girl substantial pain or suffering, most notably where the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or is not viable."

Such wordage can easily be turned against the idea that unrestricted abortion access is a human right, and the Republican platform, as decided by former President Donald Trump, will emphasize that the individual states are free to determine abortion laws, as the overturning of Roe v. Wade established.

A May 2024 Gallup poll suggested that 50% of Americans are in favor of abortion "only under circumstances."

As such, as Jonathan Turley noted in 2022, Democrats must define what those circumstances are, as most Americans reject both absolutist positions on abortion.