Colombia decriminalizes abortion in the first six months of pregnancy

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A high court in Colombia on Monday (21) decriminalized abortion in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. This is an unprecedented decision in the majority Catholic country, placing it among Latin American countries that have liberalized the practice.

According to the Constitutional Court’s ruling, women can choose to terminate a pregnancy for any reason up to the sixth month of pregnancy without being punished.

Previously, abortion was only allowed in the case of rape, if the mother’s health was at risk, or if the fetus had a malformation that endangered its survival, resulting in 54 months in prison.

From now on, “performing an abortion will be punishable only if it is performed after the 24th month of pregnancy.” After the sixth month of pregnancy, the conditions already set by the court will apply, the judges explained.

Hundreds of protesters for and against the ruling gathered outside the Bogota courthouse. “After the right to vote, this is the most important historical achievement for life, autonomy, and the full and equal development of women,” the capital’s mayor, Claudia López, wrote on Twitter.

The country thus becomes the fifth in Latin America to relax access to abortion, which is allowed in Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, and Guyana. In Mexico, it is allowed up to 12 weeks in some regions.

“Colombia is at the forefront of reproductive rights, both regionally and globally,” Catalina Martínez, a lawyer with the Causa Justa movement, which raised the unconstitutionality of the crime of abortion and whose arguments were considered by the Supreme Court, told AFP.