It applies to a single country, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruling scrapping the constitutional right to abortion reverberated globally, drawing a wave of responses from world leaders, some of them heated — “horrific,” “a huge setback” — as denunciation outweighed praise.
With the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the United States joins a handful of countries, like Poland, Russia and Nicaragua, that have rolled back access to the procedure in the last few decades, while more of the world has gone in the other direction.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada wrote on Twitter: “The news coming out of the United States is horrific. My heart goes out to the millions of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion. I can’t imagine the fear and anger you are feeling right now.”
Many of Europe’s heads of state were busy with a European Council summit, and their social media accounts reflected that, but some did remark on the news from the United States.
“Abortion is a fundamental right for all women. It must be protected,” President Emmanuel Macron of France wrote on Twitter. “I wish to express my solidarity with the women whose liberties are being undermined by the Supreme Court of the United States.”
While Pope Francis, who has an active Twitter account, did not immediately post a response or issue a statement, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, praised the ruling.
“In the face of Western society that is losing its passion for life, this act is a powerful invitation to reflect together on the serious and urgent issue of human generativity and the conditions that make it possible,” he said in a statement. “By choosing life, our responsibility for the future of humanity is at stake.”
The United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, calling the ruling “a huge blow to women’s rights and gender equality.”
“Access to safe, legal and effective abortion is firmly rooted in international human right law and is at the core of women and girls’ autonomy and ability to make their own choices about their bodies and lives, free of discrimination, violence and coercion,” Ms. Bachelet said in a statement.
Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, characterized the Supreme Court decision as a “big step backward.” Speaking at a news conference in Kigali, Rwanda, at a meeting of leaders of Commonwealth countries, Mr. Johnson acknowledged that the ruling was from another jurisdiction, but added that “clearly it has massive impacts on people’s thinking around the world. It’s a very important decision.”
“I’ve always believed in a woman’s right to choose, and I stick to that view,” Mr. Johnson said, “and that’s why the U.K. has the laws that it does.”
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark wrote on Facebook that her “heart cries for girls and women in the United States” and called the decision “a huge setback.”
“We must never compromise on women’s unrestricted right to decide over their own bodies and futures,” she added.
The prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, wrote on Twitter: “We cannot take any rights for granted. Social achievements are always at risk of going backwards and their defense has to be our day to day. Women must be able to decide freely about their lives.”
Several countries have liberalized restrictive abortion laws in recent years, through either legislation, court rulings or administrative action, including Ireland in 2018, Northern Ireland in 2019, Argentina in 2020, Mexico last year and Colombia this year. Hours before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling was released on Friday, Germany’s Parliament repealed a law that, while often ignored, had long prohibited doctors from advertising abortion services, effectively making it a crime to provide public information on the procedure and how to get one.
Reaction to the U.S. decision was muted in much of Latin America. In Brazil, much of the conversation revolved around a case this week in which an 11-year-old girl who had been raped had an abortion seven months into her pregnancy.
President Jair Bolsonaro and his son, Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator, criticized a judge’s decision to allow the girl’s abortion. The president did not comment directly on the ruling from Washington, but his son wrote on Twitter that “the defense of life resurfaces in the US.”
In Mexico, where the Supreme Court decriminalized abortion last September, activists watching the mounting restrictions in the United States have been preparing for months to help American women obtain the procedure. They plan to send pills across the border that induce abortions, and help Americans cross in the other direction to clinics in Mexico.
Verónica Cruz, the leader of Las Libres, a prominent reproductive rights group, said that after the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday, she plans to redouble those efforts.
“We have to strengthen international solidarity so that all women have options,” Ms. Cruz said. “It’s going to be a complicated fight.”
After the release of the U.S. decision on Friday, Arturo Zaldívar, the chief justice of Mexico’s Supreme Court, wrote on Twitter, “few days have I felt as proud to be part of the Supreme Court of Mexico as today.”
Colombia’s Constitutional Court also recently decriminalized abortion. The outgoing conservative government has petitioned the court to annul the decision, but the leftist president-elect, Gustavo Petro, who takes office in August, said he welcomed it. Mr. Petro has spoken against abortion but said it should not be criminalized.
Causa Justa, the coalition of feminist groups that led the fight against criminal penalties for abortion, released a statement denouncing the U.S. decision and adding, “This cause is worldwide.”
Aurelien Breeden, Jack Nicas, Natalie Kitroeff, Farnaz Fassihi, Julie Turkewitz, Torben Brooks, Stephen Castle and Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting.
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