The Plenary Chamber of the Colombian Constitutional Court decriminalized abortion until the week 10 of gestation, a decision considered historic in the South American country.
This measure, whose effects are immediate, was taken in a close vote of 5-4, with the decisive vote of Deputy Judge Julio Andrés Ossa, who analyzed a lawsuit filed by the Just Cause feminist movement, made up of several women’s organizations that asked to eliminate the interruption of pregnancy as crime in the Colombian Penal Code.
As a result of the decision, the list of women who have been criminalized for having an abortion, who registered some 400 per year, who were serving sentences of 16 to 54 months in prison, reported the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.
Until this Monday, abortion was only allowed when a woman was at risk of death or some dangerous health consequence, when it was due to rape or incest, or if there was a malformation of the fetus.
However, abortion will not be completely eliminated from the Penal Code, since it will continue to punish women who practice it past the 16 weeks, as requested by the feminist organizations.
In addition to Deputy Judge Ossa, who gave the final vote, magistrates Alberto Rojas, Diana Fajardo, José Fernando Reyes and Antonio José Lizarazo also voted in favor, while the votes in The magistrates Cristina Pardo, Jorge Enrique Ibáñez, Paola Andrea Meneses and Gloria Stella Ortiz, according to information from the Court, carried it out against him.
One hundred women who waited at the doors of the Constitutional Court ional of Bogotá, they were seen with their characteristic green scarves and waited with the feminist organization Causa Justa, which upon learning of the decriminalization of abortion until the week 24, they overflowed with joy and celebrated the nascent move.
Currently abortion is the fourth cause of maternal mortality in Colombia, calculating that of the 400, internships that are carried out in that country annually, a 10% are carried out in health institutions with a guarantee, the EFE agency specified.
Now, Colombia joins the Latin American nations of Argentina and four states of Mexico, where abortion was formally decriminalized.