A/HRC/38/46 of all human rights, including cultural rights, is an essential component in the fight against extremism, fundamentalism and terrorism (see A/HRC/34/56). 30. While the Working Group is committed to the principle of upholding freedom of religion or belief as human rights to be protected, it regrets the increasing challenges to gender equality in the name of religion. It joins other international human rights expert mechanisms in reiterating that freedom of religion or belief should never be used to justify discrimination against women (see A/HRC/29/40). Women’s autonomy and sexual and reproductive rights 31. It is in this context of rising fundamentalisms and backlashes against women’s rights that the current discourse on women’s sexual and reproductive rights is taking place at the international level. Too many women are being deprived of their sexual and reproductive health and rights. While the maternal mortality rate has declined, over 800 women still die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, with the lives of the most marginalized women at the highest risk. 12 An estimated 225 million women are deprived of access to essential modern contraception, 13 often leading to unplanned pregnancies. For girls, pregnancy and childbirth is one of the most common causes of death in developing countries, with girls under 15 years of age facing five times the danger. As a result of unsafe abortions, each year some 47,000 women die,14 and a further 5 million suffer temporary or permanent disability. 15 32. In some countries, women still live with the threat of criminal punishment for sexual or reproductive conduct such as adultery, prostitution/sex work or termination of pregnancy. In others, women are even accused of murder if they have a miscarriage or obstetric complication (see A/HRC/32/44). Criminalization of behaviour that is attributed only to women is inherently discriminatory.16 So is denying women’s autonomous decision-making and access to services that only women require and failing to address their specific health and safety, including their reproductive and sexual health needs. 33. Some 25 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries with highly restrictive abortion laws. The Working Group has documented how politicized religious conservative movements in numerous countries have influenced decision-making to either halt or roll back progress, making concerted efforts in various regions to retain or even introduce prohibitions on termination of pregnancy. In a few countries, there have been attempts made to have a total ban, even where the pregnancy threatens the life of the pregnant woman. There have also been moves to further restrict funding of contraceptives. The commitment to upholding women’s human rights regarding termination of pregnancy, as evident in some pioneering high court decisions, has not been upheld by all the highest courts in different regions.17 34. The Special Rapporteur on cultural rights has shown how fundamentalist and extremist abuses of cultural rights aim to limit the enjoyment of women’s human rights and restrict the sexual and reproductive rights of all (see A/HRC/34/56). In this regard, the Working Group reaffirms that health-care providers’ conscientious objections to reproductive health care cannot be accommodated if such objections would put women’s health or lives in danger. 35. The right of a woman or girl to make autonomous decisions about her own body and reproductive functions is at the very core of her fundamental right to equality and privacy, involving intimate matters of physical and psychological integrity, and is a precondition for the enjoyment of other rights.18 Countries where women have the right to termination of 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 8 See www.unfpa.org/maternal-health. See www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/family_planning/human-rights-contraception/en/. See www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/unsafe_abortion/9789241548434/en/. See http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPRH/Resources/376374-1261312056980/RHAP_Pub_823-10web.pdf. Ibid. See also www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/03/un-body-politics-explainer/. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WG/WomensAutonomyEqualityReproductive Health.pdf. See International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 3 and 17.