Colombian court decriminalizes abortion for first 24 weeks of pregnancy. Restrictions will remain in place if women request an abortion after the 24th week of gestation. Women’s rights organizations had been asking to decriminalize abortion for years.
Highlights
- Women in Colombia are free to end pregnancies until the 24th week after insemination.
- Women were only allowed to abort pregnancies in cases of rape, or if the life of the mother or unborn baby was seriously compromised.
- The ruling was celebrated by women who had gathered in front of the court building in Bogota to demand the legalization of abortion.
- The decision implies that healthcare intermediaries must facilitate the abortion of pregnancies as requested by women.
- Some 400,000 clandestine abortions were carried out in 2008 alone, according to the most recent study on unwanted pregnancies, some of which caused health complications for women who would put themselves at risk of criminal prosecution if they sought medical aid.