A delegation of three human rights experts -- Chairperson Ms Eleonora Zielinska from Poland, Ms Frances Raday from the United Kingdom and Vice-Chairperson Ms Alda Facio from Costa Rica -- arrived in the US recentlyto examine issues of discrimination against women in American law and practice. Reporting to The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the women visited multiple locations in Alabama, Texas and Oregon to evaluate school, health and prison systems.

The working group, which includes two additional members Ms Kamala Chandrakirana from Indonesia and Ms Emna Aouij from Tunisia, has already made fact-finding trips to China, Iceland, Spain, Moldova, Peru, Tunisia, Morocco, Chile and Senegal.

UN Experts 'Appalled' At Gender Inequality in America

In their own words, the delegates were "appalled" by the lack of gender equality in America, confirming realities long broadcast on AOC. Surely the human rights experts knew prior to reading their prep papers that the US is one of only three countries in the world that does not guarantee women paid maternity leave. We stand proudly with Swaziland and Papua New Guinea. Overall, the group was stunned at what they discovered in America.

"The lack of accommodation in the workplace to women's pregnancy, birth and post-natal needs is shocking," Raday said. "Unthinkable in any society, and certainly one of the richest societies in the world."

Gender Pay Gap Persists

Writing for Fortune today, Kristen Bellstrom confirms that a new analysis of data from over 2,300 startups and small businesses finds women working full-time making an average of 77 cents of their male counterparts.

“[The gap] is not going away by virtue of these being newer companies, run by younger people,” says Isaac Oates, CEO and founder of Justworks, which conducted the study.

Telling American women to be patient has not delivered pay equity in America. Startups remain overwhelmingly male, with just 36% of employees in these 2,300 plus companies being women. And those women are underpaid compared to their male counterparts. This pay inequity has nothing to do with women dropping out of the workforce to have children or seeking less demanding position requiring shorter working hours and less responsibility.

Affordable Child Care, Treatment of Female Migrants & Abortion Rights

The most disconcerting moment of their trip happened when the women visited an abortion clinic in Alabama, experiencing first hand the hostile political climate around women's reproductive rights in America.

"We were harassed. There were two vigilante men waiting to insult us," said Frances Raday, the delegate from the U.K. The men repeatedly shouted, "You're murdering children!" at them as soon as they neared the clinic, even though, Raday said, they are clearly past childbearing age.

"It's a kind of terrorism," added Eleonora Zielinska, the delegate from Poland. "To us, it was shocking."

Raday added: "America looks as though it is joining the regional plague. They are doing it by making abortion not accessible instead of illegal. She further explained that in most European countries, abortions are performed at general doctors' offices and hospitals that offer a wide range of women's health services. As a result, protesters don't terrorize women seeking legal health care.

"The lack of accommodation in the workplace to women's pregnancy, birth and post-natal needs is shocking," Raday said. "Unthinkable in any society, and certainly one of the richest societies in the world."

The most recent proposed law to raise the cost of abortions is a law proposed yesterday in Ohio that requires women who undergo abortions to pay for the burial or cremation of fetal remains. The cost of a bare minimum cremation in the Northeast is about $1500.

American Women and Gun Violence

The UN delegates also cited gun violence as a major area of concern. American women are 11 times more likely to be killed by a gun than those living in other advanced countries. Most of those murders come at the gun of an intimate partner pointed at her, compared to men who experience murder at the hands of strangers.

Between 2003 and 2012, 65 percent of female violent crime victims knew their attackers, compared to 34 percent of male violent crime victims. Over the same period, 34 percent of all women murdered were killed by a male intimate partner, compared to only 2.5 percent of male murder victims being killed by a female intimate partner. Guns are used in fatal intimate partner violence more than any other weapon. When a gun is present in a domestic violence situation, a woman's risk of homicide increases by 500 percent.

American Women Have No Idea How Far Behind We Are Our Pursuit of Gender Equality and Women's Rights

The lack of awareness among American women about our falling status made the greatest impression on the UN experts. "So many people really believe that U.S. women are way better off with respect to rights than any woman in the world," Raday said.

Interviewed about her 2011 book 'Flipside', Phyllis Schlafly, who led the crusade to derail the Equal Rights Amendment by tapping into conservative fears about liberating women with equal rights, said:

It is self evident that American women are the most fortunate women who ever lived and enjoy more freedoms and opportunities than are available in any other country. Armed with the right attitude, they have every opportunity for happiness and achievement. Women should stop feeling they are victims of the patriarchy, reject feminist myths, and follow the roadmap to success and happiness spelled out in ‘Flipside.’

In reality, US women have sunk to 28th place in the world, sandwiched between Mozambique and Cuba, in the latest 2015 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report. In the area of political empowerment, America ranks a pathetic 72 in the world, with extensive research confirming that the reason we are an even worse 81 on women in parliament -- our Congress -- (as opposed to women in managerial government position) is that we refuse to believe that women can legislate as effectively as men.

The U.N. experts concluded their trip by meeting with the White House and numerous government agencies, including the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Justice, to discuss their recommendations. The delegation will present their full report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in June 2016.