FRIDAY FAX

May 13, 2005
Volume 8, Number 21

UN-Funded Lawyers File Suit to Force Change in Columbia Abortion Laws

On April 14, abortion activists in Colombia mounted a monumental legal
challenge to Colombia's total ban on abortion, claiming that international
treaties establish abortion as a constitutional right in at least some
cases. Colombia's constitution, just as the constitutions of several other
countries including Germany, states that international human rights
treaties ratified by Congress trump national laws and serve as guides in
interpreting Colombia's constitution.

The case was filed in Colombia's Constitutional Court by Monica Roa, a
director of Women's Link Worldwide (WLW), a radical feminist organization
that promotes the legalization of abortion around the world. WLW has also
challenged the abortion laws of Spain, Poland, Australia, Thailand and
South Africa. WLW is funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
and the European Commission, alongside private donors such as the Ford
Foundation.

Roa claims that she is not seeking to legalize all abortion in
Colombia, only to permit it in extreme cases such as rape, fetal
impairment incompatible with life outside the womb, and when the woman's
life or health is in danger. However, prolife groups are concerned that
creating a broad "health" exception is equivalent to legalizing all
abortion.

Indeed, WLW's website suggests that "health" is equivalent to "the
woman's best interest for her physical, psychological or emotional
well-being," and may include "psychological anguish" such as "the anguish
caused by dire socio-economic circumstances." WLW also proposes the World
Health Organization's definition, which states that "health is a state of
complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence
of disease or infirmity."

Colombia outlaws abortion in all circumstances, classifying it as a
crime against life and personal integrity. In 1994, Columbia's
Constitutional Court affirmed that human life begins at conception, that
life is an essential value protected by the Constitution as the basis of
all other rights, and that human procreative freedom cannot extend beyond
the moment of conception. In 1997, the Court found that even in cases of
rape, the right to abortion "can never be understood to take precedence
over the life of the unborn."

WLW claims that Colombia's ban on abortion "violates obligations
obtained by ratifying international human rights treaties." The WLW cites
recommendations by several UN treaty-compliance committees that have asked
Colombia to liberalize its abortion laws. These include the Human Rights
Committee, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and the Committee on
the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which in 1999
told Colombia that its "legal provisions on abortion constitute a
violation of the rights of women to health and life and of article 12" of
the CEDAW Convention.

WLW's website claims that Roa's lawsuit "will hopefully provide an
example for NGOs around the world on engaging in the courts."

Copyright 2005 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute).
Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

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