Bogota - A top court in
Colombia is set to rule on whether women can seek legal
abortions during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy, a highly
anticipated decision in a region with some of the world's
strictest reproductive rights laws.
Abortion in Colombia is only allowed if a mother's life is
at risk, if a fetus is malformed or if the pregnancy is a result
of rape.
Most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean apply
similar restrictions on abortion, while six countries in the
region ban the procedure in all circumstances.
The judges on Colombia's constitutional court are
considering changes to the country's law following a case
brought before the court last year that proposed abortion be
completely banned.
The case prompted the court to consider why abortion is
restricted in Colombia and consider easing the law to allow
elective abortion in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
If the court decriminalises abortion, Colombia would have
one of the most lenient laws in South America. Only one other
nation in the region - Uruguay - has allowed elective abortion
up until 12 weeks since 2012.
Mexico City since 2007 and Mexico's Oaxaca state following a
ruling last year also have made it legal to terminate a
pregnancy in the first 12 weeks.
A decision by the Colombian court is expected in early
March.
The decision could come down to the two women on the court,
according to Paula Avila-Guillen, director of Latin America
Initiatives for the Women's Equality Center, a health care and
women's rights advocacy organization.
Of the nine judges, four men are in favor, three are
against, and the two women have the swing vote, she said.
"Colombia has already begun moving toward a more progressive
society and if these two female judges choose to stand on the
right side of history, this will be a historic moment for the
court and the country," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Pro-choice activists say a woman should make decisions about
her own body and point to the dangers of illegal abortion.
Nearly 15% of maternal deaths worldwide are a result of
botched illegal abortions, according to the World Health
Organization.
OPPOSITION
The issue of abortion deeply divides people in Colombia and
in the Catholic-majority region, where the influential Roman
Catholic Church and evangelical groups say abortion is a sin and
that laws must protect unborn children.
The case that prompted the court to look at the issue was
brought by an anti-abortion campaigner, Natalia Bernal, who
argued for a return to a total ban that was reversed by the
court in 2006.
According to Bernal, abortion puts at risk the "life,
dignity and health ... of both a pregnant woman and her unborn
son or daughter."
Her argument led one of the male judges to urge the court to
consider why abortion was restricted in the first place and to
weigh easing the law.
In recent weeks, pro-life supporters and religious groups
have staged small protests outside the constitutional court in
Bogota and in other cities, holding placards that read: "Life is
sacred" and "No one can take another person's life away."
Colombia's conservative president, Ivan Duque, has said he
believes life begins at conception.
Opinion polls suggest many Colombians agree with his view.
A Feb. 19 online poll by La Semana, a leading news magazine,
found nearly 70% of 11,290 people who replied said they were
against making abortion legal during the first four months of
pregnancy.
Recent efforts to ease restrictions on abortion in other
Latin American countries have failed.
In Argentina, despite a surging feminist and abortion
movement, lawmakers rejected a bill to legalise abortion in
2018, while Ecuador voted down a law allowing abortion in cases
of rape last year.
In El Salvador, where abortion has been totally banned since
1997 and dozens of women have been imprisoned for
abortion-related crimes, several attempts to overturn the ban
have failed.