New York Times
May 12, 2006
Colombian Court Legalizes Some Abortions
By JUAN FORERO
GOTÁ, Colombia, May 11 — Colombia's highest court has legalized abortion
under limited circumstances. The decision is expected to embolden
women's rights groups across Latin America to use courts in their
countries to try to roll back some of the world's most stringent
abortion laws.
In a 5-to-3 decision handed down late Wednesday, the Constitutional
Court overturned Colombia's complete ban on abortion and ruled that the
procedure would be permitted when the life of a mother was in danger or
the fetus was expected to die or in cases of rape or incest. Women's
rights organizations in places as varied as Argentina and New York
hailed the ruling.
"This is a triumph for Colombian and Latin American women," said
Mónica Roa, a lawyer in Bogotá who brought the suit on the grounds that
by banning abortion, Colombia was violating its own commitments to
international human rights treaties ensuring a woman's right to life
and health.
The court, explaining its decision Thursday night, said the life of
a fetus could not be put ahead of the life of a mother and called the
complete abortion ban "disproportionate" and "irrational."
Advocates of abortion rights say both arguments are applicable to other Latin American countries as well.
Ms. Roa's suit was backed financially by Women's Link Worldwide, a Madrid-based group for which she works.
But opponents in this heavily Roman Catholic region saw the decision
as akin to legalizing murder. Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo,
Colombia's highest Catholic Church official, told RCN radio here that
the decision was "an attack on human life."
"The depenalization of abortion is a judicial stupidity," Cardinal
Trujillo said. "The Constitutional Court does not have the right to say
there is or there is not a crime. This is a bad decision, the fruit of
international pressures that disrespect many Colombians."
Colombia's conservative government, led by President Álvaro Uribe, has strongly supported the Catholic Church's position on abortion.
Women's rights groups and human rights organizations have been
mounting challenges in Latin America in courts and on the streets to
laws that in most cases permit abortion only when a woman has been
raped or her life is in danger, according to the Center for
Reproductive Rights, in New York. Abortion has been banned in Chile and
El Salvador. In the region, it is readily available only in Cuba and a
few English-speaking Caribbean nations.
The parliaments of some countries, like Argentina and Uruguay, have
begun to debate proposals to loosen abortion laws. In two recent cases,
international human rights commissions told Peru and Mexico that they
had violated their own laws by not permitting two women — in Mexico, a
rape victim, and in Peru, a teenager whose fetus was severely malformed
— to receive abortions.
With Colombia's decision, several groups across Latin America that
have been pressing for looser abortion laws see new opportunities to
use the courts, many of which are changing and are seen as becoming
more independent.
"This decision influences and makes one think that other countries
will advance on this issue," Susana Chávez, director of the Center for
the Promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Peru.
In Buenos Aires, Mabel Bianco, president of the Foundation for
Studies and Research on Women, said the Colombia decision could propel
plaintiffs to demand that governments adhere to the international
treaties they signed requiring that they ensure a woman's right to
health care.
"I think this decision will prompt countries in Latin America that
have stringent legislation to reflect that abortion is not ideological,
but a health care issue," Ms. Bianco said.
Groups advocating changing the laws argue that the abortion laws in
Latin America are counterproductive. Latin America has a higher rate of
abortion than even in Western European countries where abortion is
legal and widely available.
Four million abortions, most of them illegal, take place in Latin America annually, the United Nations
reports, and up to 5,000 women are believed to die each year from
complications that arise from the procedure. At least 300,000 illegal
abortions are believed to take place in Colombia each year.
The court's ruling will not be easy to put into effect, as health
authorities ponder such thorny issues as how to confirm that a woman
seeking an abortion was raped.
The Catholic Church hierarchy and some groups opposed to abortion vowed to fight on.
"We are calling for civil disobedience, so Colombians do not follow
these practices," said José Galat, the rector of the Gran Colombia
University. He has paid for full-page newspaper advertisements
criticizing abortion rights advocates. "We're going to call for a
referendum to let the people decide if abortion should be legal or not
because the court cannot impose this."
_______________
mp
