• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > Colombia

Colombian Court Postpones Debate on Abortion Decriminalization

  • Woman demonstrates in front of the Constitutional Court, Bogota, Colombia, Nov.12, 2021.

    Woman demonstrates in front of the Constitutional Court, Bogota, Colombia, Nov.12, 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @PixiedustJtT

Published 4 February 2022
Opinion

This is the second time the debate gets delayed for a recusal on the judge responsible for a definite decision.

On Thursday, the Colombian Constitutional Court postponed the debate on the total decriminalization of abortion, as new disqualification petitions were filed against the tie-breaker judge of last January´s vote.

RELATED:

14 Social Leaders Killed in Colombia in January 2022

The legal debates commenced with two lawsuits presented in 2020: the first one was filed by Andres Sanchez in July, and the second one by the "Just Cause," a coalition of women's rights groups. Both of them seek to eliminate abortion as a crime from the country's penal code.

Sanchez emphasizes that the State cannot force a woman to become a mother, since any woman is an autonomous and free individual who has control over her thoughts and body. In addition, the denial of medical abortion services is a violation of the right to health.

The Just Cause coalition states that the criminal offense of abortion is unconstitutional because it discriminates against women. It also points out that the penal system is an inappropriate and disproportionate mechanism in the context of abortion.

This is the second time the process delays for recusal after November when Judge Alejandro Linares recused himself due to his declarations made in an interview. A new judge was brought for the debates in Court in order to uneven the voting, but now the process has been delayed again for another recusal on the new ninth judge.

Since 2006, the Colombian penal code has allowed legal abortion under three circumstances: in cases of rape, incest, or nonconsensual insemination; in cases of serious fetal malformation that makes life unviable; or when the medical team certifies that a pregnant woman’s health or life is at risk.

Any woman who otherwise undergoes the procedure — or the health personnel involved — can be liable for a penalty of 16 to 54 months in prison. In Colombia, 400 women are prosecuted every year for aborting.

An estimated 400,000 women and girls undergo induced abortions every year, about a third of whom suffer some complication. Unsafe abortions are the country’s fourth-leading cause of maternal mortality. Between 2006 and 2019, some 350 women were convicted or sanctioned for abortions. Among them were 80 minors.

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.