BOGOTÁ, Colombia – Colombia’s constitutional court voted Monday to decriminalize abortion in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, a transformative shift for the majority-Catholic country and the latest sign of a turning tide in Latin America.
The ruling makes Colombia the third large country in the region to decriminalize the procedure in slightly more than a year, after Mexico and Argentina, a development that appeared unlikely just a few years ago. Abortion rights activists said it could fuel further gains for abortion rights in the region.
As the final vote was confirmed on Monday afternoon, large crowds of abortion rights supporters celebrated outside the court in the capital of Bogotá, waving green scarves as they jumped up and down, shouting, “It’s legal, it’s legal, abortion in Colombia is legal!”
“Today, women in this country have won,” said Catalina Martínez Coral, regional director of the Center for Reproductive Rights, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit before the court. Her words were nearly drowned out by the cheers of women around her outside the court. “This is a historic decision for Latin America and the Caribbean, and will serve as a beacon for the constitutional and supreme courts of the region.”
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Source: Chronicle
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