Legal mobilization for the legal and social decriminalization of abortion in Colombia

This research shows how three women's organizations, namely la Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres (“La Mesa”), Women's Link Worldwide (“WLW”), and Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (“Catholics”) have legally mobilized through different strategies to advance the Sexual and Reproductive Rights of Women (“SRRs”), specifically the liberalization of abortion in Colombia. I focused primarily on different strategies implemented after the (C-355 of 2006) of the Colombia Constitutional Court (“CCC”) on the release of the right to abortion in three cases. The study combined document review and in-depth/semi-structural interview methods. These findings suggest that these three organizations in Colombia have strategically taken advantage of the diverse possibilities of action. Such as strategic litigation, individual cases’ support, knowledge production, and freedom of consciousness expansion. These organizations aim to achieve the legal and social decriminalization of abortion and switch the practice’s narrative from a crime into a right and a social justice matter. They consider these changes essential for women, girls, and human reproductive beings to exercise their full citizenship and freedom of consciousness. Those understandings and strategies will be developed in the following chapters.