World leaders: Abortion decision ‘horrific’
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday triggered widespread condemnation outside the United States.
World leaders and abortion rights advocates described the ruling as “horrific” and “appalling.”
“One of the darkest days for women’s rights in my lifetime,” Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon wrote on Twitter just minutes after the decision was released.
For leaders and activists in places with more-liberal abortion laws, Friday’s ruling led to anger and resignation about the future of the United States — as well as concern over how the decision might affect the issue in their own countries.
Over the past several decades, more than 50 countries have liberalized their abortion laws, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global advocacy group opposed to abortion restrictions.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the news was “horrific” and said he couldn’t “imagine the fear and anger” among women losing the right to abortion.
“Women must be able to decide freely about their lives,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on Twitter.
At a news conference in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the decision as “a big step backwards.” The leader of Britain’s right-wing Conservative government added that he had always believed in “a women’s right to choose and I stick to that view.”
In France, President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter that abortion “is a fundamental right for all women.”
“I am very disappointed because women’s rights must be protected,” World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told Reuters. “And I would have expected America to protect such rights.”
The decision did receive some prominent support outside of the country, especially in Eastern Europe and Latin America. In Europe, some members of the far right voiced support.
Beatrix von Storch, a senior member of Germany’s Alternative for Germany party, tweeted Friday that the decision was “good” and sent a signal of hope for unborn life. “It will radiate to the entire West,” Ms. von Storch wrote.
The Vatican issued a statement that acknowledged the “heated debate” around the issue and said that the U.S. decision would challenge “the whole world.” The head of the Catholic Church, which opposes abortion, called for “a non-ideological debate on the place that the protection of life has in a civil society.”
The U.S. move to restrict abortion rights is out of step with an overall trend toward liberalization of abortion rules. Argentina, Ireland and Mexico have pulled back strict abortion laws in recent years.
German lawmakers on Friday repealed a 1933 law that had restricted doctors from advertising abortion services. And Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in a major ruling last September.”
Protests against the U.S. decision were planned in European capitals including London; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Paris.