Plan International USA regrets the Supreme Court inaction that allowed Texas’ controversial abortion law to take effect on September 1. The measure bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and limits the ability of women in Texas to make their own free and informed choices over their sexual and reproductive health and lives. The law also authorizes private citizens to sue anyone who helps a woman obtain abortion services.
This action also raises serious questions about whether the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision will continue to apply nationwide. Girls and young women, in particular, are often denied the ability to exercise these rights and, as a result, can face serious medical, personal, economic and social consequences. Fulfilling the rights of all children, adolescents and young people is fundamental to achieving gender equality in the United States and around the world.
Plan does not administer or fund any abortion services. Plan does believe that priority should be given to avoiding unintended pregnancy through the provision of comprehensive sexual education and access to youth-responsive sexual and reproductive health services. Plan also knows that girls and young women in the countries where Plan works are also frequently subjected to serious harm and human rights violations, including sexual exploitation, child marriage and female genital mutilation. Unintended pregnancies can often be a consequence of these violations of girls’ and women’s fundamental rights, with pregnancy and childbirth a leading cause of death for girls 15 to 19, in many cases due to complications from unsafe abortions.
For more detailed information concerning Plan’s position on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), please see Plan International’s complete position paper.
