The US Just Decided to Continue Denying Abortions to Rape Victims Worldwide

Despite recommendations from several countries, the United States has made it clear this week that it will continue denying foreign aid for safe abortion care to women who are victims of rape, incest, or life-threatening pregnancy.

According to human rights groups, the US government is currently misapplying the Helms Amendment, a 1973 policy against funding abortion overseas, in a way that endangers women and undermines international gender equality. "The Helms Amendment, as written, prohibits the use of foreign assistance funds for the performance of abortion 'as a method of family planning,'" said Aram Schvey, senior policy counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, noting that there are many circumstances—among them rape, incest, and threat to the mother's health—that do not fall under this umbrella.

For years, the US government has treated Helms as a de facto ban on providing assistance for abortion in any situation, including for rape victims or women facing life-endangering pregnancies. Said Schvey, "The frustration we've had is that this administration has kept with what previous administrations have done and has treated [Helms] as though it says, 'No funding for abortion in any circumstances whatsoever,' which is not what it says."

This year, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium directly challenged this interpretation of the policy as part of the second Universal Policy Review (UPR) of the United States' human rights record—noting that Helms prevents women and girls who have been impregnated as a result of wartime sexual violence from accessing safe and legal abortion (which, in many countries, is permitted in cases of rape). This week, the US delegation at the UN Human Rights Council flat-out rejected their recommendations.

"The only conclusion you can have is that the administration's position is that women in situations of armed conflict ought not to have access to safe abortion," said Schvey. "That simply seems to run contrary to the values of the American people and, quite frankly, the values of our government and this administration."

Last month, Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs Philip Hammond wrote an op-ed for the Guardian condemning the abhorrent sexual violence that women endure in conflict zones. In the piece, they vehemently decried ISIS's continuing "kidnapping and sale of women and girls" as well as Boko Haram's practice of forcing women into "sham 'marriages' characterized by degradation and abuse."

"There is no complete remedy for the psychological scars sexual abuse can inflict, but policymakers can help by investing in assistance and counseling," they wrote. "We should rally and expand efforts that support survivors of ISIS brutality, including women and girls who have returned from captivity. Perpetrators should pay a price for their crimes, not survivors."

The Helms Amendment, of course, would force pregnant survivors of ISIS brutality to carry their rapists' children to term. Schvey said that it's "galling" that the US government would refuse to change its interpretation of Helms while continuing to insist that helping rape survivors overseas is a human rights imperative. "It's very disappointing," he said. "To have that very moving and very powerfully written op-ed written in the Guardian, and then, when the rubber meets the road, to have the US say, 'Well, we're actually going to reject the UK's own recommendation on that subject.'"

However, Schvey remains optimistic, noting that, in the past year alone, 81 members of Congress and over 30 religious leaders have written letters to President Obama demanding change. "It's a really unfortunate thing that ends up working against some of the most vulnerable people—we're talking about poor and disenfranchised women living in poor countries. There's an easy fix to this. I think we could help a lot of people," he said. "The US, broadly speaking, is a force for good. [We have the ability] to promote human rights, gender, equality, global health… This just seems like such an anomaly."