By five votes to four, the Constitutional Court decided that IVG was no longer an offense for the first twenty-four weeks of pregnancy. But the congress must still legislate to guarantee the practice.
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This is a new historical decision in Latin America. Since Monday, February 21, abortion is no longer an offense in Colombia. The Constitutional Court of this Andean country has opted for the decriminalization of abortion until the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy. After this date, says the Court, abortion can still be legally carried out in the three cases authorized since 2006, whether the pregnancy results from rape, if the health of women is in danger or if the fetus is wrong form. In this country of Catholic tradition, still very famous for lack of being practiced, this decision is debated.
Adopted by five votes to four, she created the surprise. Until then, abortion was punishable by a sentence of sixteen to fifty-four months in prison. “Colombia has suddenly became an ultra-progressive country,” surprises and welcomed Elisa Tamayo, militant for legal abortion, which, Monday, came to show his support for the judges of the Constitutional Court. Very few states authorize abortion after twenty weeks of gestation.
Hypocrisy of the company
Hundreds of young women found themselves in front of the loud court building, in the center of Bogota, to celebrate “a historic decision”. Causa Activists Justa, the coalition of organizations that seized the Constitutional Court, happily brandished their green flags, the color of the struggle for the right to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG). Hanging on a metal hanger, an instrument of clandestine abortions, a sign indicated “never again”. At the sound of the drums, the protesters chant: “We must abort … the patriarchate!”
Paradox: Of the four women in the yard, three voted against the decriminalization of abortion. “We already knew it: to be a woman does not make you a feminist, commented Elisa Tamayo. But without the feminists, nothing would have moved. The decriminalization of abortion is not a gift of magistrates, it’s a Victory of Colombian women’s struggle. “
Feminists have long denounced the hypocrisy of a society where Nantians abort in private clinics, while women in rural areas or the poorest neighborhoods do, when they can, under precarious conditions, even sordides. Less dangerous than they have been in the past, illegal abortions still cause the death of some 70 women a year, according to Colombian Minister of Health. Partial decay of IVG in 2006 had not put an end to inequalities. The authorities estimate 400,000 the number of abortions carried out each year, including less than 10% legally.
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