Global: Amnesty delegation meets abortion defenders as backlash against human rights intensifies

29 October 2025

An Amnesty International delegation will join abortion providers and defenders from across the globe at two gatherings in Bogotá, Colombia, to review progress on expanding access to safe abortions and to discuss new strategies to counter rising threats to human rights.

The delegation will take part in a number of panels at the Latin American Consortium Against Unsafe Abortion (CLACAI) (30 Oct – 1 Nov), and the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) (4-6 Nov). 

“While many advances have been made towards ensuring life-saving abortion services are available and accessible, anti-abortion narratives and legislation are gaining ground around the world, posing new threats,” said Fernanda Doz Costa, Director of the Gender Justice, Racial Justice, Migrants and Refugees Programme at Amnesty International, who will take part in a number of panels.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2025/10/global-amnesty-delegation-meets-abortion-defenders-as-backlash-against-human-rights-intensifies/

29.10.2025

Events/Campaigns

Amnesty International

CLACAI

ernanda Doz Costa

International Conference on Family Planning

Latin American Consortium against Unsafe Abortion

The Struggle for Abortion Rights Among Colombia’s Afro and Indigenous Women

By Natalia Falah
July 22, 2025

In Colombia, legal access to abortion services remains a deeply uneven in practice, especially for many indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and migrant woman. While abortion was decriminalized under certain conditions by the Constitutional Court in 2006 and later fully decriminalized up to 24th week of pregnancy in 2022, the right to terminate a pregnancy exists only on paper for these communities. On the ground, what prevails–revealed in a recent report published by local newspaper El Espectador–is a geography of silence, one marked by systemic barriers, cultural stigma, geographic isolation, and institutional racism.

While Colombia’s progressive abortion rulings have been hailed globally as landmark victories for reproductive rights, their implementation has been uneven. In urban centers like Bogota or Medellin, women with access to information and healthcare can often exercise their rights with relative ease. But in rural, indigenous, and Afro-descendant territories, or in urban peripheries where migrants settle, access is obstructed by multiple overlapping forms of exclusion.

Continued: https://colombiaone.com/2025/07/22/colombia-afro-indigenous-women-abortion/

Colombian Online Abortion Pill Market Surges Despite Legal Pathways Expanding

May 24, 2025

Although Colombia’s abortion law is among the most liberal in Latin America, a new study finds a flourishing internet trade in medication-abortion pills sold without prescriptions. Its revelations help explain why thousands still sidestep clinics and rely on digital storefronts.

A Rapidly Changing Abortion Landscape
Walk into a public hospital in Bogotá today, and, in theory, you can request a no-cost abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. That reality would have been unthinkable at the turn of the millennium when any termination could land a woman behind bars. Court rulings in 2006 cracked the door open for a few medical exceptions, and by 2022, the Constitutional Court swung it wide, fully decriminalizing abortion through the second trimester. Newspapers hailed the decision as a regional beacon; activists toasted Colombia’s new status as Latin America’s most progressive jurisdiction on reproductive rights.

Continued: https://latinamericanpost.com/life/colombian-online-abortion-pill-market-surges-despite-legal-pathways-expanding/

24.05.2025

News

abortion pills

Colombia Constitutional Court

medication abortion

mifepristone

misoprostol

self-managed abortion

Colombia’s push for safe abortion access

Michelle Begue
May 21, 2025
Video: 2:47 minutes

Colombia has been pushing for citizens to have better access to safe abortions. In 2022, the country witnessed a landmark ruling where the Constitutional Court made abortions legal before the 24th week of gestation. Three years later, more than 150,000 women have exercised their right to a safe abortion.

Continued: https://america.cgtn.com/2025/05/21/colombias-push-for-safe-abortion-access

21.05.2025

Videos/Images

Colombia Constitutional Court

Diana Moreno

La Mesa

Laura Castro Gonzalez

By bus, car and plane, women journey across Latin America for abortions

By Marina Dias and Terrence McCoy
February 23, 2024

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — She’d taken an overnight bus from the countryside, then a train across the urban sprawl of São Paulo, and now she was staring out the plane window, head full of worry. There was a pink rosary in her pocket. But she didn’t see the point of praying. She feared she was a sinner, a criminal, and this trip, her first time out of Brazil, would be a secret she’d carry for the rest of her life.

Cristina was 35 years old. She was 11 weeks pregnant. She came from a conservative Christian family in a conservative Christian nation where abortion was largely illegal, so she’d decided to travel to a country where it was not and bring an end to the pregnancy she didn’t want.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/23/brazil-latin-america-abortion-restrictions/

Algorithmic Ad Blocking Limits Abortion Information In Colombia

Christine Ro
Dec 9, 2023

As a doctor, María M. Vivas never set out to become a technology expert. Unfortunately reproductive health is much more politicized than other branches of medicine. “Information is something that is very blocked in abortion rights,” Vivas notes. “That’s one of the access barriers.”

To keep up with the demand for online information about often-stigmatized topics, her organization – the Colombian network of sexual and reproductive health clinics Oriéntame – has had to become well versed in search engine optimization, keywords, and other aspects of website management.

Continued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2023/12/09/algorithmic-ad-blocking-limits-abortion-information-in-colombia/?sh=321541ae3137

Americas: Brazil can become the next country to step up to guarantee the right to abortion

Amnesty International
September 28, 2023

To mark International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:

“Despite the green wave’s numerous victories in the Americas over the last few years, the rights gained and the opportunities to expand abortion protections are under attack by anti-rights actors. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States last year was a wakeup call for the movement, reminding us once more that the fight to defend and expand our rights must be ongoing.”

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/americas-brazil-right-to-safe-abortions/

Thousands of women march in Latin American cities calling for abortion rights

By Megan Janetsky & Debora Rey, The Associated Press
Sep 28, 2023

MEXICO CITY — The streets of cities across Latin America were bathed in green Thursday as tens of thousands of women marched to commemorate International Safe Abortion Day.

Latin American feminists have spent decades fighting to roll back strict prohibitions, although there are still few countries with a total ban, like El Salvador and Dominican Republic.

Continued: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/09/28/thousands-of-women-march-in-latin-american-cities-calling-for-abortion-rights/

Winning the right to abortion: the revolution of Latin American women

When Roe v. Wade was repealed in the United States, decades of progress in the struggle for reproductive rights were threatened. But across the Western Hemisphere, the tide has recently been in favor of the right to choose, with the decriminalization of abortion in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico

Beatriz Guillén
SEP 10, 2023

Simone de Beauvoir once said: “Never forget that a political, economic or religious crisis will be enough for women’s rights to be questioned again. These rights are never to be taken for granted; you must remain vigilant throughout your life.” It was an omen. Such a situation occurred in June 2022, when the United States Supreme Court repealed the right to abortion in the country, 50 years after it was encoded into law.

The repeal of Roe v. Wade proved that changes in political or judicial power could put past victories into jeopardy. It dealt a blow to the decades of struggle; however, it failed to stem the tide throughout the Western Hemisphere. In Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico, the justice systems have recently decriminalized the interruption of a pregnancy at the federal level. These rulings have emerged as beacons of hope in the defense of women’s reproductive rights in the Americas.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-09-10/winning-the-right-to-abortion-the-revolution-of-latin-american-women.html

Colombia: Abortion Rights Under Threat

July 3, 2023

Regina Tamés, Deputy Director, Women's Rights Division – Human Rights Watch
Mauricio Albarracín-Caballero, Deputy Director, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program

Colombia has attracted a lot of attention in the news over the past year for being the country that offers the best protection for abortion rights in Latin America. In February 2022 we celebrated the landmark ruling of Colombia’s Constitutional Court, which decriminalized abortion on all grounds up to week 24 of pregnancy and ordered health care providers to guarantee access to abortion services. The Court also confirmed that abortion will continue to be legal after 24 weeks where the pregnancy poses a risk to the health or life of the pregnant person, is non-viable or is the result of rape. These exceptions were introduced by the Constitutional Court in 2006.

But now the topic of abortion rights is back in the headlines in Colombia and not for the right reasons. The past few days have seen the spread of confusion and misinformation about recent rulings that could pose a threat to access to abortion. The Fourth Review Chamber of the Constitutional Court recently ruled on two tutela actions (T-158 from 2023 and T-430 from 2022) in a manner which could undermine full access to abortion services, contradicting last year’s ruling of the Full Chamber.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/03/colombia-abortion-rights-under-threat

03.07.2023