Agence France-Presse . Bogota, Colombia
30 September, 2026
Hundreds of women wearing green bandanas demonstrated in favor of abortion rights in Colombia on Monday, as President Abelardo de la Espriella’s right-wing government calls for stricter laws.
Abortion was legalised up to 24 weeks of pregnancy in 2022, following a landmark ruling by Colombia’s Constitutional Court.
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.
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
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
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.
May 10, 2022
JOHN OTIS
BOGOTA, Colombia — As some U.S. states place more restrictions on abortion and Americans brace for the possibility that the Supreme Court will soon overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the procedure, several Latin American countries have moved in the opposite direction.
The latest nation to do so was Colombia. On Feb. 21, Colombia's Constitutional Court legalized abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Argentina, Colombia and Mexico have recently legalised or decriminalised abortion. Could Chile be next?
Diana Cariboni
29 April 2022
It was inconceivable, just five years ago, that ultra-conservative Colombia would decriminalise abortion, or that Catholic, neoliberal Chile would be gearing up to vote on a new constitution that enshrines sexual and reproductive rights, including on-request abortion.
Yet in February, Colombia’s constitutional court removed abortion (up to 24 weeks) from the criminal code in response to a court case brought by Causa Justa – the spearhead of a wide-ranging social and legal campaign of more than 120 groups and thousands of activists.
Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/women-latin-america-winning-abortion-rights/
March 30, 2022
(4-minute podcast with transcript)
JOHN OTIS
Colombia approved some of the most liberal abortion laws in the Americas in February. The decision has provoked a backlash from anti-abortion groups.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
As some states in the U.S. have restricted access to abortion, several Latin American countries have moved in the opposite direction. The latest was Colombia, where the Constitutional Court in February approved some of the most liberal abortion laws in the Americas. Reporter John Otis retraces the country's course on this issue. And just a note - this story begins with some disturbing imagery.
In 2020, Causa Justa in Colombia filed the case that the Constitutional Court ruled on last month, promoting a simple yet transformative argument: that abortion is a health need, and not a matter of criminal persecution.
3/10/2022
by GISELLE CARINO
After months of delays, Colombia’s Constitutional Court finally gave their ruling in a historic case for reproductive justice: In a victory for women and human rights activists everywhere, the justices ruled to decriminalize abortion completely up to 24 weeks and unconditionally under the existing three exceptions. The case, brought by a collective of feminist movements known as Causa Justa, argued for the common sense idea that criminalizing abortion violates the human rights of women, girls and other pregnant people.
Just 16 years ago, Colombia had a total ban on abortions. In 2006, the feminist organization WomensLinkWorldwide secured a Constitutional Court ruling to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest or when the life or health of the woman is at risk. But women in Colombia continued to face multiple barriers to accessing legal abortions under these exceptions…
Continued; https://msmagazine.com/2022/03/10/abortion-colombia-feminist/
Landmark decision means women in Colombia can now terminate a pregnancy up to the 24th week.
By Emma Newbery, Bogota Post
February 28, 2022
A recent
decision from the constitutional court will decriminalise abortion in Colombia.
On February 21, the court voted that women could terminate their pregnancies
until the 24th week in what Human Rights Watch described as a “milestone for
the reproductive rights of women.”
What just happened?
The constitutional court voted five to four to decriminalise abortion in Colombia
up to the 24th week of pregnancy. It makes Colombia one of the most progressive
countries in the world in terms of its abortion legislation, but a lot depends
on how the court’s ruling gets implemented.
Continued: https://thebogotapost.com/constitutional-court-decriminalises-abortion-in-colombia/49587/
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