Last month marked a historic victory in Colombia, when the nation’s Constitutional Court ruled to decriminalize abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, while in the United States, reproductive rights are at greater risk than ever. Keep reading to learn more.

Latin American and the Caribbean

Colombia Joins The Green Wave

Colombia joins the green wave, the movement for abortion rights that is sweeping across Latin America. Following a landmark ruling from its highest court, Colombia is now the eighth country in Latin America and the Caribbean to decriminalize abortion in early stages of pregnancy. The Center was one of five organizations that worked to draft the lawsuit seeking to eliminate abortion as a crime, reduce barriers to legal abortion care, and end the risk of criminal prosecution of people seeking abortion care and of health care workers providing care.

United Nations

The World Health Organization Issues New Abortion Care Guideline

The World Health Organization's newly published Abortion Care Guideline provides over 50 recommendations—on clinical care, service delivery, and on law and policy—to improve abortion care worldwide. Key recommendations related to law and policy in the guideline includes full decriminalization of abortion, removing mandatory waiting periods, parental authorization requirements, and gestational limits and expanding access to telemedicine.

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United States

The U.S. Senate Votes on the Women's Health Protection Act

On February 28, the United States Senate voted on the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA), which would protect access to abortion in all 50 states. The bill, while supported by a majority of voters in the U.S. and passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in September 2021, did not receive the 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster. The WHPA coalition—of which the Center for Reproductive Rights is a leading member—will continue to work to advance WHPA this Congress.

March 1 Marks Six Months of Texas's Extreme Abortion Ban

Six months ago, Texas S.B. 8—the country's most restrictive abortion ban—went into effect, ending almost all abortion access in the state. The Texas law prohibits abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy and incentivizes private individuals to sue anyone who provides abortion care or helps someone get care in the state.

"This is a historic decision for Latin America and the Caribbean, and will serve as a beacon for the constitutional and supreme courts of the region."

—Catalina Martínez Coral, Senior Regional Director for Latin American and the Caribbean at the Center for Reproductive Rights