Abortion threatens the right for American women
The achievements of women in the world, as regards the right to abortion, seem to be at risk in one of the two countries, United States and Poland, always very fought. The scoop of an American newspaper has unleashed a real hurricane in the judicial, political and social world of the country. The exclusivity brought to the fore a US Supreme Court draft, signed by Judge Samuel Alito. In the draft, five of the nine magistrates, members of the most important American judicial / constitutional body, they believe that the right to abortion should be canceled. The court, therefore, could annul the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling in which, on the contrary, the right to abort was given. In the draft, the magistrate Alito judges the old sentence “Terribly wrong, with weak motivations that have caused harmful consequences”.
Abortion, 160 million Americans’ freedom to decide at risk
If the abrogation of the law were to succeed, it would presuppose the freedom of States to decide on the rights of more than one 160 million women. And there are many conservative states that are waiting for nothing more to close with the interruption of maternity. In this never-ending war against women, she took sides also Poland which, in 2020, through its Constitutional Court, ruled that abortion, due to malformation of the fetus or irreversible disease, it was unconstitutional. Until then, this was one of the three hypotheses allowed by the legislation and accounted for about 97% of the 1,110 legally practiced abortions in the country during the previous year. The Polish law on family planning (of 1993) was already among the most restrictive in Europe. Beaten in this “dullness” only by Malta, San Marino and Andorra, where abortion remains illegal in all cases.
Abortion, a problem for over 700 million women
Despite some small big steps, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, some 90 million women still live in countries where it is prohibited. 360 million do so in countries where it is only allowed if the mother’s life is to be saved, and another 240 million are in places where it can only be done for serious health risk reasons. In recent years, the decriminalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy has been a milestone for equality in countries such as Colombia; in states like Spain or Argentina, where the protection or extension of this right has meant strengthening. In the last quarter of a century, 48 countries have decriminalized abortion, the latest in terms of time being Colombia. Given this heterogeneous situation of openings and closings, United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq recalled that even the Secretary General, António Guterres, realized a “global setback” in women’s rights, including reproductive rights.
Abortion, progress and stop in many countries
Progress and stop in many countries. Between these Kenya, where the High Court in Malindi ruled at the end of last March in a decision that represents a big step forward for women and health workers in the African country. The ruling states that abortion is a fundamental right under the Kenyan Constitution and that “arbitrary arrests and prosecution of patients and professionals for seeking or offering abortion services are illegal”. The magistrates also ordered the Kenyan parliament to enact a law for the voluntary termination of pregnancy and a series of public policies aligned with the Constitution. Last March also the Chile took another step and the Constituent Convention approved with 108 votes in favor, 39 against and 6 abstentions to insert the decriminalization of abortion in the bill of the new Constitution which intends to repeal the fundamental law in force by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). According to that text, inserted in the section on sexual and reproductive rights, the state must guarantee “the conditions for voluntary and protected pregnancy, childbirth and maternity”. That project must be delivered by July 4, after which Chilean citizens will decide whether or not to approve the new Constitution.
Abortion, Colombia’s big step forward
In Colombia the Constitutional Court ruled on February 21 in favor of decriminalizing the termination of pregnancy up to the 24th week, becoming one of the countries in the world with the longest term (in France it is up to the 12th week and in Spain up to the 14th week). Until then, and according to the legislation approved in 2006, Colombian women could have abortions in three cases: rape, malformation of the fetus incompatible with life or a risk to a woman’s physical or mental health, like Spain with the 1985 law. Anyone who did not comply with the terms could face up to four and a half years of imprisonment. About 400 women were prosecuted each year for having abortions and thousands ended up in illegal clinics. In Mexico, the Supreme Court overturned the prison con which voluntary termination of pregnancy was punished and set a precedent for the entire nation. However, the legislative and judicial path that remains is still long. Long because in Mexico abortion is authorized by the Constitution, but of the 32 states only four – the capital, Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Veracruz – have a law on time limits that allows the termination of pregnancy in the first 12 weeks of gestation. And finally in Argentina the Senate in 2020 approved the legalization of abortion until the 14th week with 38 votes in favor, 29 against and one abstention. Women who decide to terminate their pregnancy can do so legally from then on, safe and free in the healthcare system. With this decision, the country closed with the law in force since 1921, which considered abortion a crime except in the case of rape or a risk to the mother’s life. Lights and shadows for a right that should be sacrosanct but all over the world.
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