article_snippet: Draft legislation aimed at boosting a flagging birth rate threatens to reduce Iranian women to 'baby-making machines' and set Iranian women rights back by decades, Amnesty International warned on Wednesday.
article_snippet: The London-based human rights group said that a first bill, which has already been approved once by parliament, would restrict access to contraception, forcing women into unsafe backstreet abortions.
article_snippet: The London-based human rights group said the second draft law, which is to go before parliament next month, would close many jobs to women who choose not to or are unable to have children.
article_snippet: the laws will entrench discriminatory practices and set the rights of women and girls in Iran back by decades,' said Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. '
article_snippet: The authorities are promoting a dangerous culture in which women are stripped of key rights and viewed as baby-making machines rather than human beings with fundamental rights to make choices about their own bodies and lives.'
article_snippet: The bill, which is now undergoing amendment, would ban voluntary sterilisation and end state subsidies for contraceptive services.
article_snippet: Amnesty said Amnesty would inevitably lead to an increase in backstreet terminations in a country where abortion is illegal except in very limited circumstances.
article_snippet: the laws would also make divorce more difficult and restrict intervention by the state in family disputes, which Amnesty said would expose women to increased risks of domestic violence.
highlights_snippet: Draft legislation aimed at boosting a flagging birth rate  has come under fire .
  
highlights_snippet: Amnesty says the laws will set rights of women back decades .