The nation’s Constitutional Court dominated in favor of legalizing abortion up till 24 weeks of a being pregnant, the supreme tribunal introduced in an announcement.
Abortion rights advocates reacted on Monday with marches in Bogota, the capital, and different main cities, having campaigned for 20 years to take away abortion from the nation’s prison code.
“We knew this was not a straightforward battle, however sooner or later it needed to occur,” stated Mariana Ardila, a ladies’s rights activist and lawyer who signed the petition to decriminalize abortion. “Of course, whereas we have been hoping for full decriminalization, and we’ll maintain combating for it, this is a crucial step ahead for us,” Ardila informed CNN, surrounded by ladies’s rights activists outdoors the courtroom on Monday night.
Abortion in Colombia has solely been authorized beneath three circumstances: when the life or well being of the girl is in danger, if the fetus has malformations that make it nonviable or when the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.
Now, ladies in search of an abortion as much as the twenty fourth week of their being pregnant won’t face prosecution, the courtroom dominated. Abortion after 24 weeks stays unlawful, besides if a type of three circumstances is current.
Since 2006, ladies in search of to finish a being pregnant outdoors of these circumstances might resist 54 months in jail beneath the Colombian penal code. While jail sentences have been uncommon, abortion rights advocates say criminalization of the observe creates a local weather of concern and suspicion between sufferers and the medical class, who usually really feel pressured to report abortions to the authorities for concern of collaborating in a criminal offense.Hundreds of ladies in Colombia are investigated for receiving unlawful abortions every year. Others resort to clandestine abortions, a pervasive and infrequently unsafe observe throughout the remainder of the area.
Even ladies who’re medically entitled to an abortion have confronted boundaries to entry remedy in Colombia. Alejandra Gutierrez, a 23-year-old most cancers affected person from Bogota, informed CNN that her case needed to undergo a panel dialogue between a gynecologist, a hematologist, and a psychiatrist earlier than her request was accredited.
Throughout the method, she says she acquired little clear details about the dangers of terminating the being pregnant or carrying the infant to time period amid chemotherapy remedy.
Only after three weeks and quite a few interviews was she allowed to finish the being pregnant. “I felt so weak, so small, and I nonetheless really feel I by no means actually acquired to the underside of it. My concern was that it began to develop, inside my stomach, after which it was too late, I used to be scared to dying.” she informed CNN in November.
Beyond the legislation, pregnant ladies in Colombia have confronted bureaucratic delays, detrimental attitudes and medical employees who refuse to hold out the process beneath a “conscientious objection” clause.
A regional reckoning
In Latin America, the place the Catholic church stays a significant affect, society has lengthy been hostile to ladies in search of abortion. However, two landmark rulings in Argentina and Mexico sign a rising shift in desirous about the process.
In September, Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously dominated that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional, a choice anticipated to set precedent for the authorized standing of abortion nationwide. And in December 2020, Argentina’s Senate voted to legalize abortion as much as 14 weeks right into a being pregnant, making the nation the most important nation in Latin America on the time to legalize the observe.
Nations the place the process is authorized usually change into very important locations for ladies in search of care that they can’t obtain of their house international locations. Cuba, Uruguay, French Guiana and Guyana, additionally permit elective abortions, in response to the Center for Reproductive Rights.Brazil, the most important nation in Latin America, solely permits abortion if the individual’s life is in danger or when the being pregnant is the results of rape. El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname ban abortions in almost all circumstances. In Costa Rica and Guatemala, abortions are solely permitted if it is to protect the individual’s well being or assist save their life. In Panama, the process is just allowed to protect the mom’s well being or life within the case of rape, or fetal malformation. Just final week, Ecuador’s Congress accredited a invoice permitting entry abortions — if the being pregnant is the results of rape — as much as 12 weeks of being pregnant for ladies in city areas and as much as 16 weeks for minors and adults in rural areas. However, the invoice nonetheless must be signed into legislation by Ecuador’s president, who has threatened to veto it.
In Colombia, one girl informed CNN she was pressured to depart the nation in 2017 to hunt an abortion after turning into pregnant on the age of 15. She requested that her identify be withheld because of the sensitivity and stigma of the problem there.
“I used to be actually scared, you enter in a state of complete panic when it occurs, how are you going to suppose with readability about something in that state?” she stated. She was nonetheless in highschool on the time.
However, her mom agreed to assist her journey to Mexico City, the place the observe was authorized lengthy earlier than it change into nationwide legislation. “I used to be fortunate: my mom doesn’t assist abortion and was very let down, however she nonetheless had my again. She had a great job on the time, so we might afford flying to Mexico and staying there for per week to do it. But many others cannot do this,” she informed CNN.
“We all know a lady who acquired an abortion, it is simply that no one is aware of who she is. We do not speak about it as a result of it is nonetheless a taboo, beneath wraps, however everyone is aware of it,” she stated.
Social taboos and public shaming across the situation stay ongoing boundaries to abortion training and entry, in response to abortion rights activists.
“This can also be about altering mentality,” stated Dr. Laura Gil, a gynecologist in Bogota who signed one of many petitions to Colombia’s Constitutional Court to alter the legislation. “We should not attempting to make folks change their opinion about abortion — that could be a query that’s necessary just for ladies who’re going through an undesirable being pregnant.
“This is about folks understanding that no matter their opinion, abortion is a proper,” she stated.