Towards a Rights-Based Approach for Disabled Women’s Access to Abortion

This paper adds to the as-yet slender scholarship on the impact of abortion laws and policies on people with disabilities and people with diminished capacity who seek abortion. We argue that neither the legal nor policy framework currently operating in England and Wales adequately incorporates and protects the rights of people with disabilities or people experiencing mental ill-health. Rather, the law and policy framework jeopardise their reproductive agency. We argue that greater attention to and incorporation of standards contained within the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (including the sources produced by its Committee) and implementation of guidelines produced by the World Health Organisation would result in a rights-affirming framework that supports disabled women’s reproductive agency, enhances their effective enjoyment of human rights, and supports them in accessing quality abortion care.