Britain’s international development secretary has promised to stand firm in her support for abortion rights in the face of growing opposition.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Canadian embassy on Monday, Penny Mordaunt said: “Leadership means not shying away from issues like safe abortion when the evidence shows us these services will save women’s lives.”

Mordaunt praised the UK’s growing partnership with the Canadian government and in a response to efforts by some countries, including the US, to roll back on women’s rights globally, added: “At CSW [UN Commission on the Status of Women] we held a strong line together resisting the pushback, as the secretary general called it. We’re united in our efforts to work on the most complex issue when others are shying away from them.”

Negotiations at last month’s CSW in New York were marked by the Trump administration’s attempts to water down language in the agreement document, and its reluctance to reconfirm the US’s commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action, a landmark international agreement that, among other things, calls for universal access to decent healthcare services for women and girls, and recognises the impact of unsafe abortion “as a major public health concern”.

Two weeks ago, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo further expanded the Mexico City policy, also known as the “global gag rule”, to include more organisations banned from receiving US funding if their work in any way supports abortion advocacy.

Pompeo also announced a cut in funds to the Organization of American States following evidence of “abortion-related advocacy by an organ of the OAS”.

“Everyone should have control over their own bodies and futures. That means every girl or woman should have the information they need and freedom to choose what is right for them,” Mordaunt told the event, organised by Women Deliver, a global advocacy group for women’s rights.

“We should recognise that gender equality is one of the great human rights issues of our time.”

In June, 7,000 world leaders, government officials, civil society activists, business leaders and foundations from 165 countries will attend the fifth Women Deliver conference in Vancouver to accelerate progress on achieving gender equality.

Katja Iversen, Women Deliver CEO, said unsafe abortion was “a killer”, and would be discussed at the conference.

The World Health Organization estimates that up to 13% of maternal deaths each year are the result of unsafe abortions. In 2017, WHO found that complications in pregnancy and childbirth, together with unsafe abortion, were the biggest killers of girls aged 15 to 19.