UN Special Rapporteur urges decriminalizing of abortion in final report

The special rapporteur on the right to health for the United Nations (UN) submitted her final report after six years in the position, and it contains extreme pro-abortion policy recommendations.

Key Takeaways:

• Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng worked as an abortionist in South Africa before being named special rapporteur on the right to health for the UN.

• She has held this position for six years and will now step down.

• In her final report, she aggressively promoted extreme pro-abortion policies.

The Backstory:

In 2020, Mofokeng was appointed to her position, which is part of the “Special Procedures” of the Human Rights Council. Though it is an unpaid position, it is considered influential, and her role was to examine and report on situations regarding the right to health care in different nations.

Her experience before joining the UN was as an abortionist in South Africa, and she also served as Vice Chairperson of the Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition of South Africa. Unsurprisingly, she was an enthusiastic promoter of abortion. Mofokeng also heavily promoted prostitution, euphemistically referring to it as "sex work."

In an op-ed — shockingly published by Teen Vogue — Mofokeng compared being a prostitute to being a doctor. "I am a doctor, an expert in sexual health, but when you think about it, aren't I a sex worker?" she wrote. "And in some ways, aren't we all?"

Her jaw-dropping remarks continued:

I find it interesting that as a medical doctor, I exchange payment in the form of money with people to provide them with advice and treatment for sex-related problems; therapy for sexual performance, counseling and therapy for relationship problems, and treatment of sexually transmitted infection.

Isn't this basically sex work? I do not believe it is right or just that people who exchange sexual services for money are criminalized and I am not for what I do.

Is a medical degree really the right measure of who is deserving of dignity, autonomy, safety in the work place, fair trade and freedom of employment? No. This should not be so. Those who engage in sex work deserve those things, too.

Sex-trafficking and prostitution are both closely connected to abortion. And there is a big difference in being paid to provide medical care to an individual and being paid by an individual who aims to use you as a nameless means to their own sexual pleasure.

In an interview with the South African Sunday Times, she said, “There is a lot of judgment, even in medicine, around the morals and values around porn… my take is that if it is not hurting anyone, then go ahead.”

This comment presumes that the consumption of pornography doesn't "hurt" anyone, but this simply isn't the case. Fight the New Drug points out that pornography "can fuel sex trafficking," profits from "nonconsensual content and abuse," distorts "consumers' understanding of healthy sex," and "can promote sexual violence."

The Details:

During her tenure, Mofokeng argued in favor of "self-managed abortion," despite the dangers associated with it, and called for total decriminalization of abortion worldwide.

These ideas were echoed in her final report, in which Mofokeng wrote about "the right to health as an enabler of human dignity." Unsurprisingly, Mofokeng argued that intentionally killing preborn humans (in other words, abortion) is a key factor in enabling human dignity.

"In sexual and reproductive health rights, dignity requires respect for decisions about reproduction and sexual life and protection from punitive legal restrictions on bodily autonomy that generate stigma and discrimination," she wrote. "Restrictions that punish abortion seekers, providers or those who assist them can force individuals into unsafe practices and deter them from seeking or providing post‑abortion care."

In countries where abortion is not completely legal, Mokofeng argued for these countries to:

adopt measures to achieve legislative and legal reforms to move towards decriminalization and immediately mitigate harm, including by ensuring access to information and sexual and reproductive health education, affordable contraception, non-stigmatizing care and strict confidentiality protections for post‑abortion and emergency care.

This, she said, is necessary for "the right to health to be realized."

Mofokeng also disturbingly applauded Spain for:

the regulation of conscientious objection and the creation of a registry of objecting professionals constitutes important instruments that is aimed at avoiding the scenario wherein collective objection limits the right to abortion.

In reality, this is a blacklist of doctors with conscientious objections to participating in or committing abortions.

“This is difficult to see as anything other than an attempt to restrict freedom of conscience,” said Manuel Martínez-Sellés, president of the Madrid College of Physicians, adding that “objector lists” could be used “to discriminate against doctors who refuse to take part in acts they consider morally wrong.”

The Bottom Line:

A replacement for Mofokeng will be named in July, but the UN has become increasingly pro-abortion, and the last two people to hold Mofokeng's position had likewise been pro-abortion extremists. It seems probable that the same trend will continue.