A senior Tory MP has called on Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to explain why the UK government appeared to be taking a “sudden backlash on women’s rights” after commitments on abortion and rights of sexual health were removed from an official multinational declaration on gender equality. .
Caroline Nokes, who chairs the women and equalities select committee, has written to Truss, who is also the women and equalities minister and Conservative leadership candidate, asking why key phrases relating to reproductive rights were deleted.
More than 20 countries had signed the original declaration resulting from a UK-hosted conference on freedom of religion and belief earlier this month. This version included a commitment to repeal laws that “allow harmful practices, or restrict the health and sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls, bodily autonomy.”
But those phrases were removed from a later version of the international pact, which is now online and has been signed by eight countries, including the UK and Malta, where abortion is illegal. Malta had not been one of the original signatories.
“One of the most important freedoms a woman can have is the right to control her own reproductive health. It is very unclear why the sections on sexual and reproductive health were withdrawn at such a late stage and apparently without consultation or discussion,” Nokes, the MP for Romsey and Southampton North, said in a statement to the Guardian.
“All over the world, the repercussions of Roe v Wade have worried women and girls, and I would have thought that the UK would want to be at the forefront of defending their rights.
“I have written to Liz Truss as Foreign Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality to ask her to explain this sudden backsliding on women’s rights. Surely the religious freedoms being advocated must also include the freedom to have the right to an abortion?
Fiona Bruce, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief at the International Ministerial Conference earlier this month. Photograph: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Truss, who is locked in a bitter battle with former chancellor Rishi Sunak to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister, delivered the opening speech at the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FORB) held in London at the beginning of July. The Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to FoRB, Conservative MP Fiona Bruce, was heavily involved in the meeting. Bruce is Co-Chair of the All Party ‘Pro-Life’ Parliamentary Group.
Changes to the declaration on gender equality have caused friction with a number of other countries. Denmark and Norway have protested “the substantive changes to the statement and the way the changes were made,” and Canada is “asking for clarification” about what happened.
Human rights and pro-choice groups have expressed outrage, with more than 20 organizations writing to Truss to call on the government to reverse the deletions immediately and explain why they were made.
On Wednesday, Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK, said: “We welcome Caroline’s call for the UK Government to provide a full and frank explanation of why these changes were made and for the text to be reinstated original. The government has said these amendments were to resolve a “perceived ambiguity”, but support for women’s human rights to freedom of belief and bodily autonomy is in no way ambiguous. On the contrary, they are values that they should be supported unequivocally, just as they were in the original intergovernmental agreement”.
The FCDO previously said it amended the statement “to address a perceived ambiguity in the wording,” without elaborating.
“The UK remains committed to upholding universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health rights and will continue to work with other countries to protect gender equality in international agreements,” she added.
The FCDO has been approached for further comment.