Human Rights

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Center for Reproductive Rights

www.reproductiverights.org

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

NOVEMBER 17, 2005

CONTACT INFO: DIONNE SCOTT, 917-637-3649

DSCOTT@REPRORIGHTS.ORG

UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE MAKES LANDMARK DECISION

ESTABLISHING WOMEN'S RIGHT TO ACCESS TO LEGAL ABORTION

Woman Forced to Carry Fatally Impaired Fetus to Term

Wins Case

New York, NY-Today, the United Nations Human Rights

Committee (UNHRC)decided its first abortion case,

Karen Llontoy v. Peru. The decision establishes that

denying access to legal abortion violates women's most

basic human rights. This is the first time an

international human rights body has held a government

accountable for failing to ensure access to legal

abortion services. The Human Rights Committee

monitors countries'

compliance with the International Covenant on Civil

and Political Rights.

"We are thrilled that the UNHRC has ruled in favor of

protecting

women's most essential human rights," says Luisa

Cabal, Director of the International Legal Program at

the Center for Reproductive Rights. "Every woman who

lives in any of the 154 countries that are party to

this treaty - including the U.S - now has a legal tool

to use in defense of her rights.

This ruling establishes that it is not enough to just

grant a right on paper. Where abortion is legal it is

governments' duty to ensure that women have access to

it."

The case was brought by the Center for Reproductive

Rights in

partnership with the Latin American and Caribbean

Committee for the Defense of Women's Rights (CLADEM)

and the Counseling Center for the Defense of Women's

Rights (DEMUS) on behalf of Karen Llontoy, a young

Peruvian woman who was forced by state officials to

carry a fatally impaired fetus to term. The

pregnancy severely compromised her physical and

psychological health.

In 2001, Karen Llontoy, a 17-year-old Peruvian woman,

was fourteen weeks pregnant when doctors at a public

hospital in Lima diagnosed the fetus with anencephaly,

a fatal anomaly in which the fetus lacks most or all

of a forebrain. After much soul searching, Llontoy

decided to have an abortion.

Abortion is legal in Peru for therapeutic reasons,

however, because Peru failed to adopt clear

regulations, women whose health is endangered by such

pregnancies are left at the mercy of public officials.

Llontoy was denied access to the procedure by the

hospital's director, and was compelled to carry the

fetus to term. She was forced to breast-feed for the

four days the

infant survived.

"Many women around the world face barriers to abortion

even where it is legal," says Lilian Sepulveda, Legal

Adviser for Latin America and the Caribbean at the

Center for Reproductive Rights. "Providers refusing to

provide services, restrictions on clinics, waiting

periods, affordability issues, spousal and parental

authorization, all represent barriers to legal

abortion. Denying women access to basic reproductive

health services - such as access to legal abortion -

is a violation of their human rights, and finally

there is a statement from international human rights

law that holds governments accountable."

The ruling specifically establishes violations to the

right to be free from cruel, inhumane, and degrading

treatment, privacy, special protection of the rights

of a minor. It orders the Peruvian government to

provide Llontoy with reparations, and to adopt the

necessary regulations to guarantee access to legal

abortion.