Colombia: How is the fight for the decriminalization of abortion going?

The Constitutional Court of Colombia began to debate the decriminalization of abortion in a climate of uncertainty regarding the position that the nine magistrates will assume, and in the midst of the intense activisms in favor and against the proposal.

From the begining of the debate in the Constitutional Court last Friday, feminist and religious organizations carried out mobilizations in the streets and campaigns on social networks to try to influence the decision, which will be taken no later than the end of November, reports RT.

Since 2006, abortion has been decriminalized in Colombia if the woman’s life is in danger, due to rape and incest, and due to malformations of the fetus.

However, article 122 of the Penal Code continues to establish penalties of 16 to 54 months in prison for women who voluntarily interrupt their pregnancies without adjusting to the three causes, and whoever helps them to carry out the abortion.

That is why the Court is now analyzing two appeals of unconstitutionality that aim to stop women from being criminalized for having abortions.

One was presented by the president of the court, José Lizarazo, from a lawsuit initiated by the feminist collective Causa Justa; and another, Judge Alberto Rojas Ríos in response to a request from the lawyer Andrés Mateo Sánchez Molina.

The discussion is part of the recent advances made by women’s movements in the region and which are known as «la marea verde» (the green tide), since it is the color of the handkerchief that symbolizes the fight for abortion rights and is shown on a massive scale in demonstrations.

One of the culminating moments of this struggle occurred on December 30, when the Congress of Argentina legalized abortion. Nine months later, the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico surprised the world by decriminalizing this practice with the unanimous vote of its members. Two weeks later, the Chilean Chamber of Deputies also approved decriminalization, but the Senate’s endorsement is still missing.

Scenario in Colombia

Decriminalizing abortion in Colombia requires at least five of the nine votes in the Constitutional Court. For now, it is expected that José Fernando Reyes, Alejandro Linares, Alberto Rojas Ríos and José Lizarazo will vote in favor, and against Gloria Ortiz and Cristina Pardo, but there is no certainty about the position of Jorge Enrique Íbañez, Paola Meneses and Diana Fajardo .

Part of the uncertainty is due to the lack of knowing the details of the presentations by Rojas Ríos and Lizarazo, and to debate them in plenary session. In both cases, the central thesis is that Article 122 of the Penal Code should be declared unconstitutional because it discriminates against women.

On the other hand, last week the Ipsos Consultant revealed that, according to a global survey, in Colombia the legalization of abortion only has 26% of popular support and that 9.0% consider it inadmissible in any circumstance. On the contrary, 36% approve it only in certain cases.

Beyond the fact that the proposal does not have a majority social suppport, the Causa Justa movement warns that the right to abortion in Colombia is not fully guaranteed, since there are doctors who rely on conscientious objection so as to not interrupt pregnancies even if they comply with any of the three grounds that are already decriminalized.

The report ‘Criminalization for the crime of abortion in Colombia’, which this organization carried out together with the University of Los Andes and the Table for Women’s Life and Health, revealed that there are 5,737 processes for the crime of abortion in the Attorney General’s Office, and that in 450 cases, the penalties were already handed down.

One of the most outstanding data of the document, which was presented last July, is that it shows that since 2006, when decriminalization was achieved for the three reasons stated above, instead of reducing the number of complaints for abortions, they increased to an average of 400 a year.