A/HRC/38/46 pregnancy and are provided with access to information and to all methods of contraception have the lowest rates of termination of pregnancy. In countries where induced termination of pregnancy is restricted by law and/or otherwise unavailable, safe termination of pregnancy is a privilege of the rich, while women with limited resources have little choice but to resort to unsafe providers and practices. WHO data has clearly demonstrated that criminalizing termination of pregnancy does not reduce the number of women who resort to abortion procedures. Rather, it is likely to increase the number of women seeking clandestine and unsafe solutions. Indeed, 25 million unsafe abortions are still performed each year.19 36. In the current discourse, the need to put women’s human rights at the centre of policy considerations regarding termination of their pregnancy is being obfuscated by the rhetoric and political power behind the argument that there is a symmetrical balance between the rights of two entities: the woman and the fetus. However, there is no such contestation in international human rights law. It was well established in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and upheld in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that the human rights accorded under international human rights law are accorded to those who have been born. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration provides that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Those who believe that personhood commences at the time of conception have the freedom to act in accordance with their beliefs, but not to impose their beliefs on others through the legal system. 20 37. The Working Group reiterates that much of the discrimination women face in terms of their right to access health services relating to their pregnancy and their resulting preventable ill-health, as well as maternal mortality and morbidity, can be attributed to the instrumentalization and politicization of women’s bodies and health (see A/HRC/32/44). Criminalizing termination of pregnancy is one of the most damaging manifestations of that instrumentalization, subjecting women to risks to their lives or health and depriving them of autonomy in decision-making. The lack of universal access to comprehensive sexuality education and contraceptive information and services, particularly for adolescents and girls, and the practice of child marriage, lead to teenage pregnancy and the exclusion of girls from education and employment, hence limiting their enjoyment of many other rights. Economic and social participation 38. In its reports, the Working Group has demonstrated how women still face structural disadvantages and discrimination in the economic and social spheres throughout their life cycle. Social and cultural barriers still prevent many girls from completing their education, and legal discrimination, entrenched inequalities in wages and labour force participation and caring responsibilities prevent women from participating equally in economic and social life. Women do 2.6 times more unpaid care and domestic work than men. 21 Older women suffer from a gender pension gap, making them particularly vulnerable to poverty, and all women face the persistent risk of sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence in schools, workplaces and other public places, in addition to the home (see A/HRC/26/39). 39. Indeed, women continue to be paid less than men for work of equal value and are severely underrepresented in top leadership in decision-making bodies in business, finance and trade, including in international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, and in cooperatives and trade unions. Furthermore, women have been grossly underrepresented in the formulation of the macroeconomic policies that have led to rocketing inequality, austerity measures and the undermining of care services on which women are more dependent than men. Today, there are more girls in schools than ever before, but one out of five adolescent girls is still out of school.22 Moreover, women’s higher 19 20 21 22 See www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/unsafe_abortion/9789241548434/en/. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WG/WomensAutonomyEqualityReproductive Health.pdf. See www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2018/sdgreport-gender-equality-in-the-2030-agenda-for-sustainable-development-2018en.pdf?la=en&vs=5653. See http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/fs48-one-five-children-adolescents-youth-outschool-2018-en.pdf. 9