JUAN ESTEBAN LEWIN and DANIELA DÍAZ
Bogotá - JUN 14, 2023

Women’s groups in Colombia are concerned about how a recent ruling from the Constitutional Court may affect the right to abortion. The sentence, dated May 15 but made public on Friday, concerns a young indigenous woman who had been denied an abortion by her public health center. While the judges sided with the woman, the ruling — known as T-158 from 2023 — stated: “It is not possible to assert the fundamental right to abortion.”

This has set off alarm bells in Colombia, as it goes against previous rulings by the Constitutional Court, which found that women do have a constitutional right to abortion, although it may be in conflict with other rights. In 2006, the Constitutional Court reached a seminal decision on the matter, decriminalizing abortion in cases of physical or mental risk to the mother, fetal malformation and rape. In February 2022, the women’s movement scored another victory, when the nine-member court legalized abortion to the 24th week of pregnancy. This was achieved after a long internal debate among the judges, and a very tight 5-4 vote in favor of decriminalization.