Women in Colombia are now free to seek abortion care without fear of criminal prosecution following a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court on Monday—the result of years of campaigning by reproductive rights groups. The ruling decriminalized abortion in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, removing strict barriers that have kept women from obtaining the procedure legally and have forced many people to risk incarceration by getting abortions at illegal clinics. The court ruled in a case brought by Causa Justa, a coalition of reproductive rights groups, which argued that the criminalization of most abortions in Colombia has led healthcare providers to deny the procedure to women even if they were legally permitted to have an abortion and has prevented patients from seeking them out of fear of being prosecuted.
— source commondreams.org | Feb 22, 2022