A joint statement [press release] by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) [official websites] said Wednesday that rolling back international human rights norms in regards to women’s access to health care, services and information is threatening the sexual and reproductive health rights of women, including women with disabilities.

The organizations included the role that access to safe and legal abortion, as well as related services and information, play as important foundations for safeguarding women’s rights to “life, health, equality before the law and equal protection of the law, non-discrimination, information, privacy, bodily integrity and freedom from torture and ill-treatment.”

The committees called upon states to take measures that enable women to make their own decisions, including steps to ensure women have access to related, reliable information pertaining to all options about their health.

Representatives for the organizations underscored that it is critical that all women, including women with disabilities, “are protected against forced abortion, contraception or sterilization against their will or without their informed consent.”