- Colombia’s landmark Constitutional Court ruling on abortion established a framework based on women’s reproductive rights and autonomy.
- The right to decide must be guaranteed through comprehensive and accessible care: proof of its fulfillment is the increase in telemedicine services for the termination of pregnancy.
- Research by Profamilia Colombia supported by Ipas Latin America and the Caribbean (Ipas LAC) showed the positive socioeconomic and health impact of telemedicine abortion procedures for low-income populations and in dispersed areas.
In 2022, Colombia became the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to allow abortion up to 24 weeks and to recognize it as a right linked to the autonomy of women and persons with gestational capacity. In the first year of the ruling alone, the lives and health of 49,000 women and other persons with gestational capacity were protected, according to Profamilia figures.
Ruling C-055 was achieved thanks to a lawsuit filed in 2020 by the Causa Justa movement, a coalition of 90 feminist organizations, activists, health professionals, academics and reproductive rights research centers that, after two years of demanding reproductive justice, achieved the decriminalization of abortion up to 24 weeks of gestation and the application of the three grounds with no time limit for access to this procedure.
“This decriminalization has represented a significant advance in gender equality and reproductive autonomy. It guarantees that no woman or person with the capacity to bear children will be forced to continue with an unwanted pregnancy and settles a democratic debt owed to them as citizens, since they are the ones who have the right to make the decision to have an abortion or not,” says Fernanda Díaz León, Ipas LAC Advocacy subdirector.says Fernanda Diaz de Leon, deputy director of Advocacy at Ipas LAC.
- In 2018, it was estimated that, annually, around 400 000 abortions were performed in Colombia, but only a small fraction (approximately 8 000) were legal, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
- A year and a half after the decriminalization of 2022, there was an increase in the number of people who had safe and legal access to abortion, according to the report “Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy and Implementation of Ruling C-055 of 2022”, by the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office and the United Nations Population Fund.
- Cases of maternal mortality from unsafe abortion procedures decreased after the ruling, according to this report. In 2023, there were 398 cases of maternal morbidity due to complications from unsafe abortion procedures, compared to 2022, when 653 were reported (National Institute of Health, 2023).
- Likewise, during the first year of implementation of the ruling, access to telemedicine procedures increased. The Oriéntame Foundation, one of the main providers of sexual and reproductive health services in Colombia, reported that 3 out of 10 services were under this modality, 5% more than in the previous period.
Ipas LAC, in collaboration with Profamilia Colombia, analyzed more than 23,000 cases of clients who used telemedicine or in-person abortion services provided by Profamilia, the organization that runs the largest telemedicine abortion program in Latin America. In this study, ” Medical abortion: a comparison between telemedicine and in-person care: analysis of a cohort of users in Colombia.“The study compared the two modalities of medical abortion services – telemedicine and face-to-face care – in clients of all ages at less than 24 weeks’ gestation. The findings revealed that both options are equally safe and effective.
This research is key scientific evidence for implementing telemedicine services to expand access to safe abortion.including public services. Telemedicine medical care is an opportunity that particularly benefits people who live in areas that are difficult to access, have few economic resources, work conditions or people under their care – which prevent them from being able to leave their homes to seek face-to-face assistance in order to receive abortion services.
- The study can be available here.
Ipas’s work LAC in Colombia
Currently, Ipas LAC has recognized four health facilities in Colombia as Good Practice Centers (GPCs) for comprehensive abortion, postabortion and contraceptive care. In addition to offering services with the highest standards of quality, respecting the rights and autonomy of women and pregnant women, these centers are teaching centers where other health-care professionals are updated and collaboration between health units at different levels is encouraged.
These PBCs are: Profamilia pilot clinic Bogotá, Profamilia Cali, Profamilia Medellín and Profamilia Barranquilla. The public hospital La Victoria, in Bogotá, is in the process of obtaining this recognition.
Reproductive rights organizations in the country have played a fundamental role in the promotion and defense of the right to abortion. Their work has been essential in making the problem of unsafe abortion visible, raising awareness about the importance of reproductive autonomy and demanding that laws and public policies guarantee safe and unrestricted access to this health service.
To learn more about access to abortion services and the organizations that provide accompaniment in Colombia, Ipas LAC has a freely accessible virtual platform: abortoenmipais.ipaslac.org/pais/COL.
Media Liaison Coordinator:
Irene Vázquez Gudiño
+52 55 3428 0544
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