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COLOMBIA: As girls in the US discover themselves on the verge of presumably shedding the constitutional proper to abortion, courts in lots of different components of the world have been shifting in the other way.
That features in quite a lot of historically conservative societies corresponding to just lately in Colombia, the place the Constitutional Court docket in February legalized the process till the twenty fourth week of being pregnant, a part of a broader development seen in components of closely Catholic Latin America.
It’s not but clear what influence there can be exterior the US from the leaked draft opinion suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court docket might overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade resolution.
However for ladies’s activists who for years have led grinding campaigns demanding open entry to abortion, usually seeking to the US as a mannequin, it’s a discouraging signal and a reminder that hard-won good points might be impermanent.
“It’s an terrible precedent for the approaching years for the area and the world,” mentioned Colombian Catalina Martínez Coral, Latin America and Caribbean director for the New York-based Heart for Reproductive Rights, which was among the many teams that litigated the abortion case in Colombia’s excessive court docket.
The February ruling there established a broad proper for ladies to have abortions throughout the 24-week interval, whereas beforehand they might accomplish that solely in particular instances corresponding to if a fetus introduced malformations or a being pregnant resulted from rape. Abortion continues to be allowed after that interval below these particular circumstances.
The choice fell wanting advocates’ hopes for full decriminalization, however Martínez Coral mentioned it nonetheless left Colombia with the “most progressive authorized framework in Latin America.”
Equally, Mexico’s Supreme Court docket held final yr that it was unconstitutional to punish abortion. Because the nation’s highest court docket, its ruling bars all jurisdictions from charging a lady with a criminal offense for terminating a being pregnant.
Statutes outlawing abortion are nonetheless on the books in most of Mexico’s 32 states, nevertheless, and nongovernmental organizations which have lengthy pushed for decriminalization are urgent state legislatures to reform them. Abortion was already available in Mexico Metropolis and a few states.
To the south in Argentina, lawmakers in late 2020 handed a invoice legalizing abortion till the 14th week and after that for circumstances much like these described within the Colombia ruling. It’s additionally broadly obtainable in Cuba and Uruguay.
However enlargement of abortion entry has not prolonged to all of Latin America, with many international locations limiting it to sure circumstances V corresponding to Brazil, the area’s most populous nation, the place it’s permissible solely in instances of rape, danger to the lady’s life and authorized instances of the delivery defect anencephaly. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who’s looking for a brand new time period in October, just lately mentioned he sees legalizing abortion as a public well being subject, eliciting criticism in a rustic the place few approve of the process.
Different locations have complete bans with no exceptions, corresponding to Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Courts within the latter have given girls lengthy jail sentences for aggravated murder even in instances the place prosecutors suspect a miscarriage was truly an abortion.
Many African nations additionally preserve full bans, however in October 2021, Benin legalized abortion in most circumstances as much as 12 weeks. Beforehand it was permitted in instances of rape or incest; danger to the lady’s life; or extreme fetal malformation.
Most European international locations have legalized abortion, together with predominantly Catholic ones. Eire did so in 2018, adopted by tiny San Marino in a voter referendum final fall. It stays unlawful in Andorra, Malta and Vatican Metropolis, whereas Poland final yr tightened its abortion legal guidelines.
It’s additionally been broadly obtainable in Israel since 1978 and comparatively uncontroversial, allowed by legislation earlier than the twenty fourth week with the approval of hospital “termination committees” that encompass medical professionals together with no less than one girl. Legal guidelines and interpretations fluctuate throughout the Muslim world.
Abortion has been authorized as much as 12 weeks in Tunisia for many years, however in Iran it’s been forbidden for the reason that 1979 Islamic Revolution. Final yr the chief of Cairo’s prime establishment of Islamic clerics, Al-Azhar, mentioned abortion shouldn’t be the answer even in instances the place a baby is prone to be severely sick or disabled.
When the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s closing resolution is handed down, anticipated in late June or early July, the world can be watching.
“Whereas strikes to decriminalize and legalize abortion in locations like Argentina, Eire, Mexico and Colombia in the previous few years have been an enormous win for the worldwide group,” Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of the human rights group Amnesty Worldwide, mentioned in a press release, “there are grim indicators that the US is out of step with the progress that the remainder of the world is making in defending sexual and reproductive rights.”
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