Colombia Becomes the Latest Latin American Country to Legalize Abortion on Request

     The past year has seen major progress made in the fight to expand abortion access across the world. Only 65 nations have legalized abortion on request out of nearly 200 around the world. However, the first nations to legalize abortion on request, the 15 nations that formed the Soviet Union, did not do so until 1955. Today, 67 years later, 65 nations have legalized abortion on request, which averages out to about one nation a year. This includes much of Asia, Europe, and North America, and even a few nations in Africa; at least one nation has legalized abortion annually since 2018.

     One area where abortion on request is rare but where progress is being made quickly is Latin America. Latin America is the last place on Earth where total abortion bans-- bans on abortion whether or not the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, risks killing or disabling the mother, or whether the fetus will be born impaired or into destitution-- are near ubiquitous. That is because the pillagers of the New World were primarily Catholics and Catholics have long primarily opposed abortion.

     Lately, the momentum in Latin America has begun to change. In 2021, Argentina legalized abortion on request. That same year, Ecuador legalized abortions in the case of rape, a regulation that legislators made law earlier this month. 10 years ago, no nation in Latin America allowed abortion on request: that changed in 2012 with Uruguay. Argentina became the second, and, now in February 2022, Colombia has become the third nation in Latin America to legalize abortion on request.

     There's no sign that this momentum is slowing down, either: across Latin America, many left-wing politicians are being elected, including in Honduras and Chile. Just five years ago, Chile banned abortions in all circumstances, and it now legalizes them in cases of risk to a woman's life or health, fetal impairment, and rape or incest. Soon, Chile may be the next Latin American country to legalize abortion on request. Women in the Dominican Republic organized the nation's biggest march for abortion rights in history last year. This is a rare moment in history, and we cannot let it go to waste. We need to carry on the fight to legalize abortion on request in Panama, in Costa Rica, in Suriname, in Venezuela, in Chile, in Bolivia, in Paraguay, in Peru, in Ecuador, in Brazil, and in Mexico (especially in Southern Mexico, where laws are changing rapidly). At this pace, it is very possible that abortion on request could be fully legal in South America by 2030 and across Latin America by 2040. 

     The ultimate goal for the "A Global View" project is to see the day when a nation becomes the 100th to legalize abortion on request, a day when there is no turning back, and that day may be sooner rather than later.