Betty Dodson with Carlin Ross

Better Orgasms. Better World.

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This was outrageous, but no more than one would expect. Unfortunately, if there had been women on the panel, we can be sure that the only ones permitted would have been ultra-conservative and anti-choice.

I don't understand this. Has the UN at least made a comment to this obvious attack on women's rights? 

According to this article from the Association of Reproductive Health Proffessionals,
the U.S is the 50th country in the world when it comes to maternal mortality.

http://www.arhp.org/publications-and-resources/contraception-journal/march-2011

Quotes from article:
"Given that at least half of maternal deaths in the United States are preventable,⁵ this is not just a matter of public health, but a human rights failure.⁶ ... The comparatively high rates of maternal deaths in the United States is an indicator of the failure to ensure that women have guaranteed lifelong access to equitable, quality health care, including reproductive health services. "

Also, read this press release of the U.N's sixty-sixth general assembly in 2011:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/gashc4018.doc.htm 

Quotes from article:

“States must remove criminal and other laws restricting access to comprehensive education and information on sexual and reproductive health,”
"“Criminal laws penalizing and restricting induced abortion provide examples of State interference with women’s right to health,” he stressed, adding that such laws restricted women’s control over their bodies, undermined their dignity and infringed on their autonomy."
"Because criminal laws were ineffective in discouraging women from seeking abortions, their ultimate impact was only actually determining whether abortion was safe or unsafe since women would seek that procedure anyway,"

"Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health
 ANAND GROVER, Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, said he had undertaken activities to develop his mandate further and to examine, monitor and publicly report on the issues related to the right to health globally. ... “The right to sexual and reproductive health is a fundamental component of the right to health,” he said, noting that among other texts, General Comment No. 14 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights said the right to health included measures to improve child and maternal health, sexual and reproductive health services and access to sexual and reproductive health information.  Other international norms acknowledged the importance of sexual and reproductive health rights.  States must, therefore, ensure that this aspect of the right to health was fully ensured. ... Women and girls were more likely to experience infringements on their right to sexual and reproductive health given the physiology of human reproduction and the gendered social, cultural and economic context in which sexuality, fertility, pregnancy and parenthood occurred. 

A physician can't perform any medical procedure on someones uterus without their permission, so I've been arguing that someones uterus is their soveriegn domain and now it seems the U.N. has recognised that, with "if it's illegal they'll get an abortion anyway" and like most soveriegn control over any domain you either have it recognised or you risk your life asserting it. So lets recognise it world wide so people can excercise their right in safety.   

Dear Jake,

I agree.
It's old news, though. Reproductive rights were solidified through the U.N's Declaration of Social Progress and Development in 1968. Wikipedia says 1974, but I think that might be wrong.

Sorry, not reproductive rights. Family planning and contraceptives. Although, it doesn't say it outright.