Medellin, Colombia, Mar 3, 2022 / 10:44 am
A local pro-life leader believes that with the recent ruling of the Colombian Constitutional Court decriminalizing abortion up to six months of pregnancy, women will be "more unprotected" and their rights will be “more vulnerable.”
“The terrible decision that the Constitutional Court has made … is barbaric. Abortion is horrible at any week of pregnancy, but allowing abortions in such advanced stages is going to affect women psychologically,” Deisy Álvarez, executive director of the Red Provida Latin American Pro-life Network, said in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister news agency.
On Feb. 21, the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled 5-4 that abortion “will only be punishable when performed after the twenty-fourth (24) week of pregnancy and, in any case, this time limit will not apply. to the three grounds established in judgment C-355 of 2006,” which are risk to the life of the mother, sexual abuse, or fetal deformity. This effectively means elective abortion up to 24 weeks.
Álvarez said that with this ruling “women are going to be more unprotected” since “a message is being sent to Colombian society, especially to the new generations, that if you believe that something stands between your dreams and life projects, even if it’s your own child, you can kill him.”