Abortion is now a right in Colombia too
Environment — di Maurizio Bongioanni
In a landmark ruling, Colombia's constitutional court decriminalised abortion within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion is now a right in Colombia too
In a landmark ruling, Colombia's constitutional court decriminalised abortion within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
- Colombia's constitutional court has decriminalised abortion.
- From now on, abortion is permitted if carried out within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
- Colombia joins Argentina among the major South American countries to have introduced this civil right.
On 21 February 2022, Colombia's constitutional court finally recognised the right to abortion within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy: a major victory for women's rights and for the feminist movements that had been fighting for decades to see bodily autonomy recognised.
Colombia thus joins Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay and Guyana, South American countries that have legalised abortion in recent years, marking an epochal turning point for human and civil rights in Latin America — a continent where there are still many obstacles to women's right to safe and equal access to abortion.
Pro-Choice demonstrators celebrate outside the Justice Palace after the Constitutional Court voted in favor of decriminalizing #abortion up to 24 weeks of gestation on February 21, 2022 in Bogota, Colombia. 📸: @GuilleLegariaS #abortolegal #FalloHistorico
More than 350,000 illegal abortions are carried out every year
Until now, abortion in Colombia was permitted only in cases of risk to the life or health of the pregnant mother, or where dangerous foetal malformations existed, or where the pregnancy was the result of rape, incest or non-consensual artificial insemination.
Reproductive rights groups in South America estimate that up to 400,000 abortions are performed in Colombia every year, of which only 10 per cent are carried out legally. During 2020, at least 26,223 unsafe abortions were performed across Colombia, according to Profamilia, a women's healthcare organisation.
Furthermore, according to estimates by Causa Justa, a Colombian women's rights coalition, between 2006 and 2019 at least 350 women were convicted or sanctioned for having an abortion, including at least 20 girls under the age of 18.
Abortion is still illegal in almost all of Latin America
Women's rights groups, gathered under the 'green wave' collective, celebrated outside the constitutional court's headquarters in the capital Bogotá. Organisations have been calling for years for the removal of abortion from the penal code, but the court had always avoided ruling on the matter.
"We celebrate this ruling as a historic victory for the women's movement in Colombia, which has been fighting for the recognition of their rights for decades," declared Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International's director for the Americas. "Women, girls and people capable of having children are the only ones who should make decisions about their own bodies."
Latin America is a traditionally very conservative region, and the Catholic and evangelical Christian church has always been able to rely on some of the world's most restrictive abortion laws, which often ban the procedure entirely. For example, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti have declared voluntary termination of pregnancy completely illegal.
¡ES OFICIAL! ¡DESPENALIZADO EL ABORTO EN COLOMBIA HASTA LA SEMANA 24! ¡Felicitamos al movimiento @causajustaco por este fallo histórico en América Latina! #FALLOHISTÓRICO
Safe abortion reduces inequality among women
Yet legal abortion is not only far safer than clandestine abortion, but also the cost of the procedure is much lower when performed in safe facilities that use the techniques recommended by the World Health Organisation.
As if that were not enough, the criminalisation of abortion has deepened inequalities among women. The majority of women prosecuted for clandestine abortions in Colombia come from rural areas, and almost a third of them are victims of sexual violence, including domestic violence. Moreover, the choice to make abortion illegal has generated fear and stigma among healthcare workers, leading them to avoid providing abortion services for fear of social and legal consequences.
Ecuador could be next
Now the Colombian court's decision could change all of this and revolutionise the lives of millions of women and girls. The hope is that more and more countries will choose to replace the current framework of persecution and criminalisation of women with laws based on freedom of choice.
It is difficult to say which country will be next to decriminalise abortion, but many hopes rest with Ecuador, where parliamentarians have just loosened the laws so as to allow women to choose abortion at least in cases of rape.