Building Reproductive Justice with Women of African Descent

April 13, 2026
Women’s Link Worldwide

In February, our legal associate at Women’s Link, Eliana Alcalá De Ávila, participated in a community meeting in Cali, Colombia, alongside women leaders and women of African descent from the organizations La Comadre and AFRODES. The goal was to share information about access to abortion in the country from an intersectional perspective and to open a conversation about the specific barriers that Black women—women of African descent—face in exercising their sexual and reproductive rights.

The gathering took place in Llano Verde, a neighborhood in the Aguablanca district that is home to a significant Afro-descendant population and has welcomed many people displaced by violence in the country. There, at a local public school, the women who organized the event welcomed us with a deeply meaningful gesture: a space for harmonization to begin the day.

Continued: https://womenslinkworldwide.org/en/building-reproductive-justice-with-women-of-african-descent/

13.04.2026

Commentary

Eliana Alcalá De Ávila

La Comadre

reproductive justice

Ruling C-055 of the Constitutional Court of Colombia

sexual and reproductive health

Andorra: Activist on trial for raising concerns about total abortion ban at UN meeting

December 1, 2023
Amnesty International

Abortion rights activist, Vanessa Mendoza Cortés, should have never been charged with a crime or put on trial for defending human rights, said Amnesty International, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Women’s Link ahead of her defamation trial on Monday.

Vanessa Mendoza Cortés, President of Stop Violence (Stop Violències), a civil society organisation, was charged with criminal defamation after voicing concerns about Andorra’s total abortion ban at a meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to examine the country’s record on women’s rights in 2019.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/andorra-activist-on-trial-for-raising-concerns-about-total-abortion-ban-at-un-meeting/

Having Won the Right to Abortion, Colombian Activists Are Pressing Health Facilities to Deliver

In February, Colombia introduced one of the most liberal abortion laws in the world after activists took to the courts – but now their challenge lies in ensuring the health system is in a position to offer terminations.

01/11/2022
Juanita Rico

Not long ago, abortion in Colombia was a taboo topic that could not be mentioned during dinners or family gatherings, according to Florence Thomas, one of Colombia’s feminism most influential voices.

“It was considered such a difficult subject that people would stand up and leave my lectures when I touched upon it,” Thomas told Health Policy Watch.

Continued: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/having-won-the-right-to-abortion-colombian-activists-are-pressing-health-facilities-to-deliver/

01.11.2022

Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres

Activists welcome Colombia’s decriminalisation of abortion

Amy Booth, The Lancet WORLD REPORT| VOLUME 399, ISSUE 10328, P899
MARCH 05, 2022

The ruling consolidates Latin America's swing towards pro-choice, following similar recent decisions in Argentina and Mexico. Amy Booth reports.

Colombia's constitutional court has decriminalised elective abortion up to 24 weeks, giving the country some of the most liberal abortion legislation in Latin America. The ruling deepens a trend towards legalisation in a region where the procedure was almost universally banned until recently. Following extensive and litigious negotiations, the court announced its 5–4 verdict on Feb 21, 2022. Outside the courthouse, feminist campaigners clad in the emerald green of Latin America's green tide pro-choice movement hugged each other and jumped for joy, many bursting into tears.

Continued: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00416-0/fulltext

Abortion-rights advocates hope a video campaign can help tip Colombia’s court

Colombia's Constitutional Court is expected to rule in the coming weeks on whether to legalize abortion. Can social media sway justices, as well as public opinion?

WLRN 91.3 FM | By Tim Padgett
Published October 26, 2021

In the coming weeks, Colombia’s highest constitutional court, La Corte Constitucional, is expected to rule — for the second time in less than two years — on whether to legalize abortion in that country.

Abortion is permitted in Colombia only in cases of rape or incest, severe fetal malformation or if there's a threat to the pregnant person's life. Abortion-rights advocates say they’re confident the court this time will decide to allow any abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.wlrn.org/news/2021-10-26/abortion-rights-advocates-hope-a-video-campaign-can-help-tip-colombias-court

Pandemic further hinders safe abortion in Latin America

Pandemic further hinders safe abortion in Latin America

By Carlos Christian
April 9, 2020

Calls decreased, but text messages increased. They cannot speak because they hear them. They cannot say in front of their families that they seek help, that they need to abort. Las Comadres, a feminist network in Ecuador that provides information to women who want to terminate their pregnancies with drugs, has had to change its communication channels in recent weeks. Telephone calls are becoming increasingly difficult. Isolation, imposed as a mitigation measure by Covid-19, has limited the freedom of those seeking access to an abortion, but not the determination of those who are determined to do so.

Verónica Vera, one of the sixty Ecuadorians who responds to requests for accompaniment, now through platforms such as Telegram, says that in March requests for support increased by 25%. Women who want to abort will do so even in a health emergency, and the public health system in Latin America seems not ready to respond. “The difficulty of mobilizing due to the measures adopted by the pandemic, the collapsed medical services and the lack of privacy within prolonged confinements could lead to a setback in Latin America,” he warns.

Continued: https://theunionjournal.com/pandemic-further-hinders-safe-abortion-in-latin-america-society/

Women’s Link sues the health department of the Region of Murcia, Spain, for violating the right to a dignified abortion

Women’s Link sues the health department of the Region of Murcia, Spain, for violating the right to a dignified abortion

The organization is representing Ana, a woman who was denied information regarding her fetus’s condition by the health department, and so was prevented from accessing abortion services in a dignified manner.

On International Women's Day, March 8, Women’s Link is demanding access to a safe, legal and dignified abortion for all women in Spain

Country: Spain Date: 07/03/2017

Madrid, March 7, 2017 – Women’s Link is suing the health department of the Region of Murcia, Spain, for violating the rights of their client Ana (not her real name), a woman who was denied information on the serious condition affecting her fetus for almost six weeks. Due to this violation of her right to information, as well as the discrimination she faced in the Santa Lucía de Cartagena Public Hospital in Murcia, she was not able to access abortion services in a dignified way, and as a result suffered serious physical and psychological harm.

Continued at source: Women's Link Worldwide: http://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/en/news-and-publications/press-room/women-s-link-sues-the-health-department-of-the-region-of-murcia-spain-for-violating-the-right-to-a-dignified-abortion