The Lucy Wartenberg award recognized a study that warns that denying IVE increases the risk of death in women by 161%.
Members of the Causa Movement, which achieved the decriminalization of abortion until week 24 in Colombia, holding green scarves in a public event in August.
On the occasion of the global action day for legal and safe abortion, the table for the life and health of women announced to the winners of the Lucy Wartenberg Awarda biennial distinction that, honoring the memory of the human rights expert anthropologist who died in 2021, makes visible Contributions from different sectors to the defense of the right to abortion In Colombia.
This year, the assistant professor of the Department of Economics at the University of California (UCLA) Juliana Londoño Vélez received the award with Estefanía Saravia for her research ‘What happens in the lives of women and their families when they are denied the right to abortion?’which connects the debate on the interruption of pregnancy with other disciplines, such as the economy.
The results of the study seek to show some empirical evidence in the face of the consequences of judges’ decisions when it comes to guardianship to request an abortion. A good part of the analysis focuses on the gender of the togado can impact on their decision when a woman seeks to interrupt Voluntarily its gestation, which generates fear among the users.
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Saravia, candidate for doctor at UCLA, and Londoño They published their project in January with the premise that the consequences of the obstruction of an abortion can be immediate, such as 161% more likely to die in the nine months of the determinationmainly for infections and their lethal consequences, such as septicemia, for trying to irregularly abort.
Can read: They report 118% increase in abortions in Colombia after their decriminalization
The pioneer approach explains that “Decisions on fertility are distorted” among those who in the future would like to be mothersquestioning when having children, how many to have or if they should have, and in the long term pregnant women suffer from more health problems, less education, less job participation and more likely to fall into poverty.
The judges are 20% less prone to denied abortion cases than judgesasserts the investigation, which analyzed almost twenty thousand guardianships between 2006, when the Constitutional Court decriminalized abortion in three grounds – violation, malformation of the fetus and danger in the health of the mother -, and 2022, when the High Court legalized it at all until the 24th week of pregnancy.
The cause model led thousands of women to abort. In 2008, for example, it was estimated that some 400,000 abortions were practiced in the country, of which the majority were illegal. In Medellín up to 2022 1.6 tutelas were filed for each interruption of pregnancy, and were randomly assigned to 125 courts, of which 42.3% were headed by judges.
The judges denied 62% of abortion requests, while the judges did it with 42%. The women who filed guardianship had an average age of twenty -eight years old, 21% were teenagers and 22% already had daughters or sons before deciding to abort. On average, the applicants had 14.8 weeks of pregnancy, that is, just over three months.
“We have shared the results of the study with members of the Academy, public policy makers and several organizations,” said Londoño, and said that The conclusions “generate surprise and a little concern that the sex of the judge can be so decisive in women’s life and their families when it comes to abortion guardianships. “
The Lucy Wartenberg Award, an initiative that the table for life promotes since 2023, gave a special mention to the organization Rhuda, who advises and supports sexual and reproductive rights in Huila. And he granted a mention of honor to leader Yirley Velasco, of the Women Sowing Life Association, which has an impact on the Montes de María.
The 2025 edition of the award had the Juradas Erika Guevara Rosas, director of Research and Incidence of Amnesty International; Luna Borges, professor and lawyer at Columbia University, and Ana Cristina González, co -founder of the table for the life and health of women and pioneer of the fair cause movementwho achieved the court ruling three years ago.
“There are many and different ways for which we can talk about the impacts of the criminalization of abortion and the absence of quality care“Borges said. Rosas, on the other hand, said that” the right to abortion It is not just a legal debatebut a cause deeply linked to freedom and the dignity of women. “
Source: Integrated information system
