The government confirms that it does not support the decision to decriminalize abortion

Through the Ministry of Justice, the national government has confirmed that it will not support the request of the Causa Justa movement, an organization that seeks to allow women to make independent decisions about their pregnancy in a free and informed way. The petition sent by the group calls for the total decriminalization of abortion in Colombia. However, the ministry replied that there is no reason to go a step further by judicial means as the competence to decriminalize abortion rests with Congress.

It also confirmed, in a document sent by Deputy Minister Francisco José Chaux, that “only in the event that the provisions of the Colombian Congress indisputably violate the international and constitutional obligations of the State in the field of human rights, the Constitutional Court will appeal to abstract judgment of constitutionality or conventionality on the law “,.

That is, by the government, The decision that abortion is legal is upheld for the three reasons that this high court established in 2006: when there is a risk to the life or physical and mental health of the woman, when there is a malformation of the fetus and when it comes to a product of rape or incest.

The document continues: “this Ministry believes that, if the body decides to re-evaluate its previous jurisprudence, according to which the life of the fetus is a constitutionally protected asset, it cannot fail to explain or propose how this should be reconciled with the fact that in Currently (…) a necessary change of approach has been made that also safeguards the life and existence of animals, through criminal measures. Rightly, society deserves to know why it is constitutionally reasonable to punish, even criminally, those who injure the life of animals, but it is not possible to impose sanctions aimed at protecting the life of the unborn child, that, although not a person in the civil aspect of the term, there would be, from some moment of his development, at least one being belonging to the human species “.

The Just Cause case clarifies that with the existence of the criminalization of abortion, lWomen are forced to resort to unsafe solutions that put their lives at risk and also claim that, despite the three causes, the health system always places barriers to terminating pregnancies.

This debate is in the hands of the magistrate Antonio José Lizarazo of the Constitutional Court, who ensures that the ICBF must document with figures how many girls and adolescents have requested an abortion in the three cases, while the ICBF ensures that the Ministry of Health is responsible for provide this information.

On the other hand, The Ombudsman’s Office pointed out to the Court that 131 cases were heard between 2018 and September 2020 in which women faced obstacles when it came to voluntary termination of pregnancy, of which 116 were new and 15 were followed up. Of these 116 cases, four were requested for malformation of the fetus, 37 for sexual violence and 61 for risk to the health or life of the woman. In 13 cases, no cause was reported. The barriers came from the ICBF, health systems or treating physicians, indigenous authorities or municipal health secretariats and consisted of denial of service, negligence, conscientious objection, lack of medical equipment, omission or difficulty. to submit the complaint.

“Three cases of women with cognitive disabilities have been reported. Three of the users claimed to be in a prostitution situation. In two of the cases, users were reported to have different sexual orientations. A case has also been identified of an intersex woman who became pregnant as a result of rape. 100 of the women present have Colombian nationality, the other 16 are Venezuelan. Of these, 6 claimed to be in an irregular migration situation ”, confirmed the Ombudsman’s Office in the Just Cause lawsuit.

The Ombudsman’s Office also said women are required documents not required by law to perform an abortion, even though they fall under the three lawsuits filed by the government. They claim that IPS does not accept as valid certificates issued by doctors who are not part of their service delivery network. “Women are required to consult a physician from the EPS network even though, at times, the appointment and appointment times do not meet the standards of a reasonable time.”

EPS also holds medical meetings as a requirement for authorization of the procedure, which only extends the barriers to abortion. In addition to this, several doctors, in order not to do IVE, object that it goes against their principles.

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