Having Won the Right to Abortion, Colombian Activists Are Pressing Health Facilities to Deliver
Sexual & Reproductive Health 01/11/2022 •

 

Causa Justa activists outside Colombia’s Constitutional Court

In February, Colombia introduced one of the most liberal abortion laws in the world after activists took to the courts – but now their challenge lies in ensuring the health system is in a position to offer terminations

Not long ago, abortion in Colombia was a taboo topic that could not be mentioned during dinners or family gatherings, according to Florence Thomas, one of Colombia’s feminism most influential voices.

“It was considered such a difficult subject that people would stand up and leave my lectures when I touched upon it,” Thomas told Health Policy Watch.

 Some 16 years ago, in 2006, Colombian lawyer Mónica Roa challenged the country’s complete ban on abortion in the Constitutional Court and achieved the decriminalization of abortion on three grounds: when the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest; when there was a severe malformation of the fetus; and when the pregnancy constituted a risk to the woman’s health. 

“That ruling changed the course of history,” Thomas explains because it made it evident that the legal way to fight for safe abortions was not the Congress, but the Constitutional Court, the highest court in Colombia.

Since then, feminist movements and pro-choice lawyers like Roa have fought to extend the decriminalization of abortion in Colombia.

Lawsuit against barriers

In 2020, Causa Justa (“Just Cause”), a movement made up of over 100 organisations and 140 activists united to legalise abortion, filed a lawsuit against the criminalization of the early termination of pregnancy. 

Instead of proposing a whole new scheme of laws that would have to go through Congress, they sought a regulate abortion within the rules that were already in place and thus would not rely on politicians. 

Causa Justa showed that, despite the 2006 reforms, abortion remained a crime in the Penal Code, putting it out of reach for most women.  Causa Justa’s lawsuit, supported by more than 100 national and international experts, also showed that almost 400 women were convicted every year for having or seeking an abortion, with sentences ranging from 16 to 54 months in prison. Between 2006 and 2019, more than 5,700 women were charged for abortion.

Causa Justa’s lawyers also showed the judges that criminalization forced women to seek unsanitary and dangerous underground abortion clinics. According to Colombia’s Public Health and Epidemiology Observatory, one of the main causes of  the deaths of over 400 women from haemorrhaging in 2020 was unsafe, illegal abortions.

Between 59% and 70% of the complaints laid against the women seeking abortions had come from health workers, explains Mariana Ardila, a lawyer with Women’s Link, one of the organizations that are part of Causa Justa. 

Abortion providers could also face charges, which made most health professionals refuse to perform abortions.

Nail-bitingly close judgement

That sad reality changed with the new ruling in February this year, which established that abortion will only be an offence after the 24th week of pregnancy. 

“Women won,” said the plaintiffs after learning of the decision, surrounded by chants claiming: “It is a law! It is a law! It is a law.”

The ruling is historic because successive Colombian governments have never legislated on an issue that they consider neither a priority nor find beneficial because of the controversy it generates in the street. 

Colombia is a secular but deeply religious country. A 2017 survey revealed that 97% of citizens believe in God and the different churches, predominantly Catholic and Evangelical, have enormous power over believers, pushing them into an all-out fight against abortion.

In its final stage, the Constitutional Court judges voted on the lawsuit, and the vote was nail-bitingly close: five judges were in favor, and four against. With this final say, the court proved that Colombia is changing. Today, only 20% of the population approves that women go to jail if they get an abortion.

Health services not prepared

The Court also ruled that the government would have to implement a comprehensive public policy regarding access to safe and legal abortions in the “shortest possible time.” However, to date, such a policy hasn’t been fully defined and executed.

 Colombia’s Ministry of Health recognizes that barriers to abortion persist and are mainly associated with the denial of services – mainly due to ignorance of the changed legal framework and improper exercise of conscientious objection by medical personnel. 

On 28 September, it issued a document with instructions about how to strengthen sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion, that was addressed to all entities that are part of the health system.

Colombia is part of a “green wave” of countries in the region that have decided to expand their abortion freedoms, but it allows abortion much later than its regional counterparts.

 

Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled late last year that was unconstitutional to criminalize abortion. However, each state has to regulate the decision of the Supreme Court. 

In Argentina, Congress approved abortion’s legality up to 14 weeks, and, as in Colombia, lifted the restrictions that only allowed for abortion in cases of rape or where the mother’s health is at risk.

On the other hand, Ecuador’s National Assembly approved a bill that allows abortions if they result from rape up to the 12th week, but President Guillermo Lasso vetoed it, saying that he respects “life from conception.”

Colombia’s ruling, however, is a historic victory for the Colombian women’s movement that has fought for decades for their rights to be recognized in a traditional and ultra-catholic country. The next step is for the public policy to be fully deployed across the country and to serve as a model for the region.

Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres, a feminist collective that defends women’s sexual and reproductive rights, stated that during the first few months of 2022, they helped more than 90 women to overcome barriers while seeking an abortion within the new law’s parameters.

Alejandra* (not her real name) is one example. She asked for an abortion in her sixth week of pregnancy but only finally got one in her 11th week. She states that the procedure was slow and painful and that the doctors did not provide clear information about the process.

The numbers show that the path is still long for women in Colombia and that the famous feminist march slogan, “we want sex education to decide, contraceptives to avoid abortion, and legal abortion not to die,” will still echo in the streets, the mountains, the buildings, and law-making entities until Colombian women can feel free to decide, unchallenged, about their bodies.

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation provided support for this article.

Image Credits: Causa Justa.

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