Colombia waves its green handkerchiefs a year after legalizing abortion

After 365 days have elapsed since the Colombian Constitutional Court decriminalized abortion until week 24, dozens of Colombian women hugged again this Tuesday at the doors of this building located in the center of Bogotá to celebrate the historic decision of the judges of the high court

Among the feminists who vigorously waved their green scarves is Paula Bernal, one of the first young women who was able to terminate her pregnancy thanks to ruling C-055 of 2022 adopted on February 21, 2022.

She was barely 20 years old when she took a positive pregnancy test that made her feel like her life was starting to fall apart “more than it already was.” That is why today, she claims to be a woman “more feminist than ever”, considers it important to celebrate the first anniversary of this victory of the green tide. “It was a conquered right that took us time. Thanks to him I can say that now I am alive“, the law student assured EFE.

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This milestone, which expanded the three grounds that allowed the termination of the pregnancy until then (rape or incest, risk to the mother or malformation of the fetus) was the result of two lawsuits: the one presented by five organizations of the Just Cause movement and another by an individual, which were discussed jointly and finally voted on with five votes in favor and four against.

Wrapped in green garments that match her eye shadow, there is also the lawyer and member of Causa Justa who participated in the drafting of one of the lawsuits, Cristina Rosero.

They drafted the lawsuit during the strictest confinement that the country was experiencing due to the covid and he does not hesitate to admit that it worked “challenging to find hope to be able to write something that looked so far into the future, in the midst of such an extreme and confusing situation“.

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For this reason, after two years of joint work and several delays by the judges when it came to making a decision that they expected by November 2021, many of the women who, like her, fought to make decriminalization a reality felt that it was ” unreal” that a concrete result would have been reached. “We had been waiting for a decision for more than 200 days. For us it was quite a hard uncertainty (…). So when we found out about the rumors that there was a decision, it was hard to believe.“, recalled the Nariño woman while defining this day as “sweet and unforgettable.”

Before the ruling, abortion in Colombia was only legal if the fetus had malformations, was the result of sexual violence, or if the mother was at risk of losing her life.

EFE

Although with this ruling of the Constitutional Court, Colombia became the first country in Latin America to decriminalize abortion until week 24, the organization Table for the Life and Health of Women reiterated its intention to continue fighting until it achieves “total decriminalization”. “We remain convinced that the main barrier to access to voluntary termination of pregnancy in the country is the permanence of the crime. So the horizon is to eliminate the crime from the penal code“, insisted Angélica Mateos as a member of the Table for Life.

In the same way, and among the cries of the young women who shouted “we are not hysterical, we are historical”, Rosero recalled that they still have a lot to do at the level of “social decriminalization” and surveillance of some health provider entities that, one year after, “they deny the service because the health personnel do not agree with the sentence“.

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In the heat of these tasks to be carried out within the movement, the lawyer also stressed the importance of staying alert regarding the “more than 17 requests” that have been presented in the high court to annul the sentence, and the referendum attempts in to undo these advances in reproductive rights.

However, he assured that the possibilities for the applications to prosper before the Court they are rare to the extent that annulment can only occur if there is a serious violation of due process when the unconstitutionality was processed.

“Colombia, a year ago, was at the forefront of the protection of reproductive rights and opened the possibility for women, girls, trans and non-binary people to have better access to this service”assured Rosero in the framework of this soggy celebration that the movement baptized as “freedom party”.

EFE