Women's Rights and the Zika Virus

The zika virus is an infection transmitted by mosquitoes, related to dengue, yellow fever and West Nile virus. The virus has no vaccination and no cure, the World Health Organization has declared the outbreak an international public health outbreak with the potential for more than 4 million to be infected by the end of the year. The infection causes essentially no lasting harm in those infected, however in pregnant women, it leads to severe developmental disorders of the fetus, specifically microcephaly, underdevelopment of the head and brain. Following the zika outbreak, Brazil reported 20 times more cases of microcephaly in 2015 than normal. This outbreak of the Zika virus and the concerns for the health and quality of life of the mother and infected fetus has sparked debate across the world regarding the right of a woman to have access to a safe and legal abortion.

Abortion has been widely talked about in Latin and South American countries where the outbreak of the virus has been prevalent and where abortion laws are extremely strict. These laws vary from legal abortions only to preserve the life of the mother, to in many countries like El Salvador and The Dominican Republic, abortion being illegal regardless of the situation. In countries like this, all of which have reported cases of the zika virus, women are beginning to protest and call for the changing of abortion laws to be able to abort a fetus that would otherwise be dead shortly after they are born. Not only do making these abortions illegal force women to carry out a pregnancy that they do not want and will end with a severely deformed and ultimately terminal pregnancy, but it has widely increased the number of back alley abortions, which are incredibly unsafe for women.

A few weeks ago the United Nations made a decision regarding a case in Peru that began fifteen years ago was settled through the United Nations Human Rights Committee, allowing a woman the fundamental right to have a safe and legal abortion. A women in Peru was diagnosed extremely early in her pregnancy to be carrying a baby with anencephaly, a severe developmental disorder. During the time of the diagnosis, abortion was legal within the context of the situation in Peru, however when the woman went to a hospital to request the abortion, the hospital director refused service, forcing her to continue carrying the fetus, only to have her baby died four days after birth. The woman filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which determined in 2005 that Peru had violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It was not until this year however, that the United Nations actually held Peru physically accountable for their unjust actions when they finally received compensation for the incident.

We must begin to include all aspects of women’s health as their fundamental human rights, lest we put our mothers and daughters and sisters in harms way just for being a woman.

The decision marked the first time that the United Nations had held any country responsible for the act of withholding access to a safe and legal abortion, which was called “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” by Peru. Holding Peru directly accountable for their actions is a fantastic stride, not only for women who require abortive services, but to continue to destigmatize abortion. Additionally, and most importantly, this means that the United Nations has officially recognized the access to safe legal abortions as a human right.

This situation gave me hope that the United Nations would begin to officially define the right to an abortion as a fundamental human right, and the zika virus outbreak has further highlighted why it is necessary to be treated as such, otherwise we constantly put women at risk just for being pregnant. One of the most terrible responses seen to the Zika outbreak has been in El Salvador, where abortion services are completely illegal. Rather than looking to change abortion laws and access to women’s health care, the government has called for a two year “baby-making” ban, strongly recommending women not to get pregnant until 2018. What an absurd thing to suggest as a lawmaker, not that we adapt the system to accommodate for women and their bodies, but we tell women to shut themselves down for two years, and let the already infected mothers to accept their fetus’ fate. We must begin to include all aspects of women’s health as their fundamental human rights, lest we put our mothers and daughters and sisters in harms way just for being a woman.