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A leaked draft opinion suggests the US Supreme Court could overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision
As women in the United States find themselves on the verge of possibly losing the constitutional right to abortion, courts in many other parts of the world have been moving in the opposite direction.
That includes in a number of traditionally conservative societies — such as recently in Colombia, where the Constitutional Court in February legalized the procedure until the 24th week of pregnancy, part of a broader trend was seen in parts of heavily Catholic Latin America.
It is not yet clear what impact there will be outside the United States from the leaked draft opinion suggesting the US Supreme Court could overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
However, for women activists, who, for years have led grinding campaigns demanding open access to abortion, often looking to the United States as a model, it is a discouraging, sign and a reminder that hard-won gains can be impermanent.
“It is an awful precedent for the coming years for the region and the world,” said Colombian Catalina Martinez Coral, Latin America and Caribbean director for the New York-based Centre for Reproductive Rights, which was among the groups that litigated the abortion case in Colombia’s high court.
The February ruling there established a broad right for women to have abortions within the 24-week period, whereas previously they could do so only in specific cases such as if a fetus presented malformations or a pregnancy resulted from rape. Abortion is still allowed after that period under those special circumstances.
The decision fell short of advocates’ hopes for complete decriminalization, but Martinez Coral said it still left Colombia with the “most progressive legal framework in Latin America.”
Similarly, Mexico’s Supreme Court held last year that it was unconstitutional to punish abortion. As the country’s highest court, its ruling bars all jurisdictions from charging a woman with a crime for terminating a pregnancy.
To the south in Argentina, lawmakers in late 2020 passed a bill legalizing abortion until the 14th week and after that for circumstances similar to those described in the Colombia ruling.
However, expansion of abortion access has not extended to all of Latin America, with many countries restricting it to certain circumstances — such as Brazil, the region’s most populous nation, where it is permissible only in cases of rape, the risk to the woman’s life and certified cases of the birth defect anencephaly.
When the US Supreme Court’s final decision is handed down, expected in late June or early July, the world will be watching.
“Moves to decriminalize and legalize abortion in places like Argentina, Ireland, Mexico, and Colombia in the last few years have been a huge win for the global community,” Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of the human rights group Amnesty International, said in a statement. “There are grim signs that the United States is out of step with the progress that the rest of the world is making in protecting sexual and reproductive rights, adds Agnes Callamard.
