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The Ordo Iuris Institute has submitted an opinion in the consultations held by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the implementation of the update to the technical guidance on the elimination of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity.

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Ordo Iuris pointed out that the binding norm of international law is the right to life, enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, whereas no treaty establishes a “right to abortion.”

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Ordo Iuris cited World Health Organization data showing that the elimination of maternal deaths depends on the availability and quality of obstetric care.

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As an example, Ordo Iuris presented the situation in Poland, whose maternal mortality ratio is among the lowest in the world, despite laws that to a large extent protect the lives of unborn children.

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Ordo Iuris experts recommend that the OHCHR direct its attention and funding toward proven clinical determinants of maternal survival, rather than toward legal changes aimed at expanding the possibilities of performing abortions.

Research does not confirm a link between a “right to abortion” and maternal mortality

The Ordo Iuris Institute has submitted a written opinion in the public consultations conducted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The consultations concern the implementation of the OHCHR’s updated technical guidance on the elimination of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity. The call for input was issued pursuant to UN Human Rights Council resolution 60/18, and it is to result in a report that the Office will present to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-sixth session. Ordo Iuris declared its full support for the goal underlying this initiative, namely the elimination of preventable maternal deaths. In the document, Ordo Iuris experts focused on two issues.

The update to the guidance rests on the assumption that legislation fully protecting the lives of unborn children increases the number of maternal deaths because it drives abortion “underground.” Ordo Iuris pointed out that the available evidence does not confirm such a causal link. The Ordo Iuris Institute cited a systematic analysis by the World Health Organization covering the years 2009–2020, according to which maternal deaths result primarily from persistent inequalities in access to obstetric care and from its poor quality. Ordo Iuris also invoked the “three delays” model developed by Sereen Thaddeus and Deborah Maine, recognized for three decades, according to which the key risk factors are delay in deciding to seek help, delay in reaching an appropriate facility, and delay in receiving adequate care after arrival. None of these factors concerns the legal status of abortion. As examples of an effective reduction in the maternal mortality ratio without changes to abortion laws, Ordo Iuris pointed to Malaysia and Sri Lanka, where the level of protection of life is relatively high. In these countries, investment in professional midwifery, skilled birth attendance, and a functioning referral system brought maternal mortality down to levels comparable to those of industrialized countries.

The right to life, not a right to abortion

Ordo Iuris points out that the binding and paramount treaty norm is the right to life, enshrined in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Poland, like the vast majority of the states to which the update is addressed, is a party to both of these treaties. In its preamble, the Convention on the Rights of the Child recalls that the child needs appropriate legal protection “before as well as after birth.”

Accordingly, the opinion stresses that none of the treaties universally binding on states establishes a “right to abortion” or “sexual and reproductive rights” as a stand-alone category of rights. The consensus documents on which the update relies, namely the Cairo Program of Action and the Beijing Platform for Action, are political commitments, not treaties. Moreover, the Cairo Program of Action expressly states that abortion should not be promoted as a method of family planning, and that any changes to legislation relating to abortion belong to the national legislative process. Likewise, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women contains no reference to abortion, and its Article 12 (on health care) cannot be read as requiring access to abortion.

Ordo Iuris noted that no norm of customary law establishes a so-called right to abortion, because state practice in this area is deeply divided, and some countries, when ratifying human rights treaties, made declarations affirming the protection of life from the moment of conception. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights does not establish a right to abortion and leaves states a wide margin of appreciation, while the American Convention on Human Rights protects the right to life, in general, from the moment of conception.

Poland as an example

Ordo Iuris presented Poland as an example of a country where there is no link between a law that to a large extent protects the lives of unborn children and maternal mortality. According to estimates by the UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG), Poland’s maternal mortality ratio is approximately 2 deaths per 100,000 live births, one of the lowest in the world, compared with a global ratio of approximately 197.

This result has been achieved in a country where legislation, as a rule, protects human life from conception to natural death, and where abortion is prohibited except in strictly defined cases (although it is true that, since 2024, Donald Tusk’s government has gone to great lengths to circumvent the law in this area as well; the very low rate of maternal mortality, however, was measured before 2024). Ordo Iuris noted that, despite these results, the update to the guidance takes a critical view of the Polish legal system, citing the inquiry concerning Poland conducted by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In the view of Ordo Iuris, this shows that the object of criticism is the legal system itself, rather than the actual maternal health outcomes that this consultation is meant to improve.

Recommendations to the OHCHR on accountability and funding

Ordo Iuris also addressed the issues of accountability and international funding. It pointed out that genuine accountability for maternal deaths rests on maternal death surveillance systems and on clinical audit, as recommended by the World Health Organization, and not on litigation concerning the legal possibility of performing abortions.

With regard to funding and international cooperation, Ordo Iuris stressed that the obligation of international assistance and cooperation arising under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights does not create an obligation to fund or promote abortion. In the view of Ordo Iuris, making development aid conditional on expanding the legal possibility of performing abortions in the recipient state is incompatible with the reservation of this matter to national legislative processes and with the principle of the sovereign equality of states enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.

Ordo Iuris recommended that, in its report to the Human Rights Council at the 66th session, the OHCHR distinguish obligations binding on states from recommendations of expert bodies, refrain from presenting “abortion care” as an international standard, respect the reservation of abortion regulation to national legislative processes, direct the implementation of the guidance toward the clinical and systemic determinants of maternal survival, and also present good practices from those states that achieve low maternal mortality while maintaining protective legal regulations.

“The participation of Ordo Iuris in the consultations of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is significant because it makes it possible to present, on the international stage, arguments based on the law in force and on reliable data rather than on political assumptions. Poland, which ensures one of the highest levels of protection of life at its prenatal stage of development in Europe, has managed to achieve some of the best results in the world in protecting mothers’ lives, which in itself undermines the false claim that the availability of abortion translates into lower maternal mortality. The experience of states with a different legal model confirms that women’s safety is determined above all by the quality of perinatal care, access to skilled medical personnel, and the capacity of the health care system, not by the scope of permissibility of termination of pregnancy,” comments Patryk Ignaszczak of the Ordo Iuris Center for International Law.

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Source of cover photo: iStock