Bukele won't change abortion laws 3:38
(CNN Spanish) -
The Constitutional Court of Colombia could decide this week on a total decriminalization of abortion in this country by studying two lawsuits in this regard.
If ruled in favor, Colombia would become one of the few countries in the Americas to fully decriminalize abortion.
Recently, in September 2021, the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled that it is unconstitutional to criminalize abortion.
The decision comes days after a law on the other side of the border, in Texas, that prohibits abortion after 6 weeks of gestation, brought the issue back to center stage.
The United States is one of nearly 60 countries that provide legal access to safe abortions.
Although it has been legal since 1973, access to treatment depends on the laws determined by each state, and most states have established gestational limits that vary from 20 to 24 weeks.
Abortion laws in the world
Laws on abortion vary dramatically around the world: in some countries it is a personal decision, in others it is completely illegal, and in many countries abortions are only accepted in certain situations, such as fetal malformations or in cases of rape.
Totally legal abortion in Colombia?
The Constitutional Court will decide this week
The Center for Reproductive Rights, a non-profit organization in the United States, counts those countries in which abortion is legal, in which it is allowed only in certain circumstances and in which it is totally illegal.
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Some of the latest updates were those of Argentina, which in December 2020 approved the law that allows the voluntary interruption of pregnancy;
Ireland, which in May 2020 held a referendum in which legalizing abortion won by majority;
and Chile, which in 2019 allowed abortion in certain circumstances.
The situation in Latin America
On December 30, 2020, the Senate of Argentina approved the bill that legalizes the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
The country thus managed to legalize abortion after the regulation failed legislatively in 2018.
The law was promulgated by President Alberto Fernández in January 2021 and
allows free and legal access to abortion up to the 14th week of gestation.
Argentina thus joined Uruguay and Cuba as the only countries in Latin America that enable legal abortion at the request of any pregnant woman.
Uruguayan law establishes as a limit the 12th week of gestation, as well as the Cuban one.
In addition to the United States, on the mainland Canada, Guiana, and French Guiana also have laws that enable free legal abortion.
Then other countries have a policy in which they allow abortion in specific cases and conditions:
Bolivia: rape, incest, mental health;
Colombia: rape, incest or fetal alteration.
(Currently two lawsuits are being studied for its total decriminalization)
Ecuador: rape;
Peru: rape, risk of life for women.
In Antigua and Barbuda, Brazil, Dominica, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay and Venezuela, abortion is prohibited, but it is allowed to save the life of the woman in case of risk.
Mexico is among those countries, but some states have added other causes to allow the termination of pregnancy.
For example, in Mexico City it is enabled up to 12 weeks of gestation.
And to these provisions are added the decision of the Justice of this Tuesday.
Suriname, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Honduras are the only countries on the American continent in which abortion is totally prohibited.
Editor's Note:
This article was originally published in August 2018 and was updated in November 2021.
Abortion Cause of abortion Decriminalization of abortion