Colombian court poised to make historic abortion ruling

Thousands of pro-choice activists, including feminist groups from the US and Chile, demonstrate in favour of decriminalizing abortion, outside Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Picture: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Thousands of pro-choice activists, including feminist groups from the US and Chile, demonstrate in favour of decriminalizing abortion, outside Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Picture: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Published Feb 25, 2020

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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. 

Reuters

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