US Secretary of State pledges push for global expansion of abortion (@SecBlinken)

Referring to the Dobbs v. Jackson decision (CWN coverage), Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the State Department is “fully committed” to “helping provide access to reproductive health services and advancing reproductive rights around the world.”

“We will not waver from this commitment,” he added.

In the majority of nations around the world, abortion is legal in limited circumstances, such as rape (map). One-third of nations permit abortion on demand early in pregnancy.

Only a handful of nations permit abortion as extensively as the US did prior to the Dobbs decision. As the Court observed, “only six countries besides the United States” allowed “nontherapeutic or elective abortion-on-demand after the 20th week of gestation” as of 2018: “Canada, China, the Netherlands, North Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam ... Iceland and Guinea-Bissau are now also similarly permissive” (pp. 6-7).