POLITICO: Democrats, rights groups urge State Dept. to bring back reports on women’s reproductive rights
“House Democrats and civil society organizations are urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to reconsider the State Department’s exclusion of reproductive rights from its annual human rights reports. Their letters noted that since 2011 these country-specific reports have included detailed information about women’s access to contraception and abortion across the world. This precedent was broken in the 2017 reports, as first reported by POLITICO in February. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, the subsection on gender-based violence was also trimmed down. Ninety-seven civil society organizations have signed a letter calling on Pompeo to immediately restore the human rights reports to their previous form. … In a separate letter, 129 House Democrats have demanded that Pompeo ensure that the section on reproductive rights be included in future reports…” (Sadiq, 10/4).