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The struggle of a group of Catholics for the right to abortion in Colombia

2020-02-23T00:35:46.808Z


Amid the debate in the country, several organizations promote the Just Cause campaign that calls for the total decriminalization of abortion to prevent more women from being prosecuted


They have been told false Catholics, they are threatened with excommunication, they are attacked on social networks. None of this intimidates a group of women, Catholics for the Right to Decide (Cdd), which these days raises its voice in Colombia when abortion is once again the center of debate. In the Andean country, voluntary termination of pregnancy is a right in three circumstances, but in the next few days the Constitutional Court will respond to a claim by an anti-abortion lawyer who seeks to make it illegal again in all cases and return to 2006.

On the other side, with the green handkerchief, the Catholics of this movement say that, on the contrary, this is the time to redouble the bet and definitively remove the crime of abortion from the penal code, which today gives penalties of 1 to 3 years of jail to women, except for three cases: rape, malformations of the fetus incompatible with life outside the womb and risk to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. “We gather around a just cause and that is to stop criminalizing women for abortion. This is the opportunity to advance women's reproductive autonomy, ”says Sandra Mazo, political scientist, linguist and a“ proud Catholic, ”even more since she began studying feminist theology.

Yes. She knows that feminism and theology are two words that sound strange in the same sentence, as they were told since they started in the 90s to organize to demand equality from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. At the headquarters of the movement, in a downtown neighborhood of Bogotá, they have spent years studying canonical codes and interpreting the Bible and the Church's books with a woman's gaze, that there is no such contradiction because “we fundamentally defend rights for equality of women in the economic in the political and in the social ”. Their initial axis was sexual and reproductive rights and the need, they say, to "desculpabilize" women, but along the way they understood that abortion was a central issue. “An injustice is being committed with women. It is not fair that the Catholic Church led by misogynist men who exclude us from the decisions, some celibates with such patriarchal positions, are those who decide for the body of women. That is unheard of, ”says Mazo.

A Latin American network

Sandra Mazo, director of Catholics for the Right to Decide.

The movement began in Uruguay and spread across several countries in Latin America. Its source is the theology of liberation and social justice, because they saw that “women who have economic resources thus aborted were illegal and did not die. Poor women bore the full burden of criminalization of abortion and the risk of clandestine abortions. ” In Colombia, this group took force in 2006 in the months before the constitutional court approved the abortion in all three cases. They went to debate with the leaders of the Catholic Church who at that time were sought as sources in the media. They joined other feminist organizations and advocated the legalization of abortion that was celebrated as a conquest.

Colombia, despite its deep-rooted Catholic tradition, is a secular state and no religion is above another before the Constitution. The current discussion has once again polarized society, but there are inevitable changes. Aura Cuasapud, lawyer of the movement, says that now they do not argue so much with the priests, but with evangelicals and other anti-abortion laity who have linked to political parties with a seat in Congress. From there, for example, political leaders such as former president and senator Álvaro Uribe already promote a referendum, in case the Constitutional Court decides to decriminalize. "We must prepare for a referendum against laxity in abortion, what is the respect for life?" He wrote. Meanwhile, faithful of his party make seedlings against the high court.

The Catholics, who are uncomfortable for these religious groups, because they are dissenting voices, defend the decisions of the Constitutional Court that in recent years has issued at least 17 sentences in favor of abortion. “I do want to give a part of peace to religious groups. If there is something beautiful in the judgment of the Court and in our case it is that abortion is not mandatory. If a woman from these groups is in one of the causes, she has the right to say that I will not abort so that her life is at risk, but they cannot force all the women of Colombia to sacrifice their life, their health and decisions. With much affection I tell you that if they believe that their religious conviction prevents them from aborting they don't have to, ”says Mazo.

The anti-abortion groups call themselves provida and base their discussion at the time of conception and on which the life of the fetus is more important than that of the woman. The group of Catholics affirms that this discussion is not central and “more than putting ourselves on the subject of life or not life,” the focus of the debate is on public health and social inequality. But above all and, in religious terms, in “the freedom of conscience that is the one that recognizes that every man and woman has moral agency, that is, ability to decide,” explains the lawyer.

Another difference from the current debate with that of the past is the emergence of social networks as amplifiers of misinformation. Several politicians have said that "women abort as a contraceptive method." Mazo says they are fallacies. “Abortion poses a dilemma, but it is always the last option a woman takes. When there is an unwanted pregnancy the first decision is not to say 'ah, it came out positive, ready, abortion!'. No, you will never find a woman who says 'oh, I'm going to get pregnant to abort'. Nor is she going to tell a friend, 'we are going to abort on Sunday,' what a cool one. It's not like that".

Part of his work is in the popular neighborhoods of the country where they arrive with a confessional. Within the structure, however, women do not find a priest to confess their doubts waiting for an answer. In its place is a mirror. It is they who "with God in their conscience enter into dialogue and decide." The message is that it is not a priest, or someone outside who must decide for the woman's body, which is “she who has to love and be sure of what it means to be a mother. We are not an empty container for motherhood, ”concludes Mazo, director of Catholics, who, in the company of the Table for the Life and Health of women, demands total decriminalization through the Just Cause campaign.

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2020-02-23

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