Stealth treaty

United Nations | An international treaty used to change abortion laws around the world could soon find its way into more U.S. adjudications | Alisa Harris

Luis Benavides/AP

In Saudi Arabia, women may not vote, drive a car, or travel by themselves. In Afghanistan, women set themselves on fire to escape forced marriages. In China, pregnant women have no choice but to abort their babies and sterilize their wombs.

Yet all three countries have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty that promises women "the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men."

But the promises of CEDAW ring hollow: "Where it's really needed, it has not been effective. Where it's been harmful to women, it has been effective, as in overturning pro-life laws," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America. One area of effectiveness, say pro-life activists like Wright, has been to twist the treaty's original purpose to compel support for abortion worldwide.