Iran death penalty for abortion is 'clear contravention' of international law: Experts

Iran's law raising the prospect of the death penalty for abortion was denounced by human rights experts who declared it a “clear contravention of international law”. In a statement released on Tuesday, 16 November, the independent experts called on the Iranian authorities to repeal the ‘Youthful Population and Protection of the Family’ law, which was ratified by Iran’s Guardian Council on 1 November. According to the experts, Iranian law significantly restricts access to abortion, contraception, voluntary sterilisation services and related information to direct violation of women’s human rights under international law. 

The law, noted the experts, that it contains a provision stating that if carried out on a large scale, abortion would fall under the crime of “corruption on earth” and carry the death penalty. According to the official UN statement, the experts declared, “The Iranian Government is taking further steps to use criminal law to restrict the rights of women, for the sake of increasing the number of births, which will effectively force many women and girls to continue unwanted pregnancies to a term which would be inherently discriminatory.”

Experts said the law will not stop abortion

In experts’ view, the law will not stop abortions in Iran. They even cited the data illustrating that “Criminalising the termination of pregnancy does not reduce the number of women who resort to abortion”. They added, “Instead, it forces women to risk their lives by undergoing clandestine and unsafe procedures.” The United Nations said in an official statement that data has estimated around 300,000 to 600,000 illegal abortions are performed in Iran every year.

Under the law, antenatal screening tests will also be restricted and the Iranian health ministry will establish a system to collect information on everyone who visits a health centre for fertility treatment, pregnancy, delivery and abortion. The access to information about everyone in the health centre is apparently designed to enhance the monitoring of pregnancies and discourage abortions. But the experts warned, “Restricting the access of women to free contraception goods and services will lead to unwanted pregnancies and high maternal mortality.”

“We will closely monitor the impact of this law on maternal deaths and ensure accountability for failure to act with due diligence to prevent the death of women and girls with risk pregnancies, or the death of those that undergo unsafe abortions”, they added.

(IMAGE: AP)