Infobae spoke with three experts about the difficulty of women at the time of accessing a Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy -IVE- under the current health system
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Misinformation, lack of education on the matter and medical negligence are some of the existing barriers when accessing a legal and safe abortion even after the ruling of the Constitutional Court and the decriminalization of this practice until week 24. PHOTO: Courtesy ( Just Cause)
The afternoon of February 21 became historic for thousands of women in the country. In Bogotá, in front of the headquarters of the High Courts, hundreds of green and purple handkerchiefs waved, at the same time that the songs of many asked that they be recognized the right to decide on their bodies through the decriminalization of abortion. Inside the Constitutional Court, there was a discussion that ended in a close vote of five against four in favor of the proposal that called for decriminalizing the crime: after delays and postponed discussions, even week 24.
Jubilation took hold of the women upon learning of the decision of the magistrates and associate judge Julio Ossa. The green tide grew while, on the other side, indignation was the main feeling of the ‘pro-life’ groups that, cameras in hand, awaited a favorable ruling for them.
“The clear disclosure of the options available to pregnant women during and after pregnancy” and “the elimination of any obstacle to the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights that are recognized in this judgment” are some of the recommendations made by the Court in judgment C-355 of 2022 so that it is fully complied with. However, 100 days after the decision is made, many women find it difficult to access a legal and safe abortion.
Infobae Columbiaconsulted some experts from organizations in favor of the decriminalization of abortion, and they stated that, although there are barriers that no longer exist after the Court’s ruling, others remain both in a large part of the health system and in academia. Deliberate failures and delays are some of the impediments to free access to this procedure.
Laura Gil, a gynecologist and member of the Just Cause movement, said that a barrier was eliminated after the Court’s ruling and it has to do with the fact that, now, women consult the mechanisms to access an IVE safely.
For her:
“Women, through the news and social networks, have learned that they now have the right to request an abortionand I think that this first barrier has allowed women to go to the EPS or their health services to request an abortion when they require it. Of course, not without fear, not without the expectation of what they are going to say, but at least they already know that they have the right. A great barrier that used to depend exclusively on how to consult has collapsed.”
Ignorance of the ruling that decriminalizes abortion up to the 24th week
According to < b>Carolina Triviño, lawyer for the Roundtable for Women’s Life and Health, there is a clear lack of knowledge of the ruling not only in sectors of society, but in the health system itself. “We show that there is a lack of knowledge of judgment C-055 of 2022 and, above all, of its mandatory nature.The EPS do not recognize this obligation or the immediacy in the fulfillment of the decision; In addition, there is a lack of attention to the right to truthful and impartial information regarding the sentence and this translates into health providers providing erroneous and distorted information to women regarding this new decision”, indicated the expert.< /p>
This obstacle is linked to the request for additional and unnecessary requirements and “the limitation of health services based on gestational age, the unconstitutional use of conscientious objection and the respective non-implementation of this legal framework.”
“For example, a woman told us that when she was requesting the procedure and activation of the route for the IVE from the general practitioner, she said that no doctor is going to do that because ‘they are going to overthrow that law,’” she explained. Triviño, reaffirming that there are still prejudices about women who decide to have an abortion legally.
The personal position of many doctors: another barrier
For Gil, this is another stone in the shoe that several women willing to perform an Interruption find Pregnancy volunteer within the health system. “The personal position of health system operators, not only doctors but also nursing or other professions, for example psychology. That position that goes against their principles and values has a legal figure and is called conscientious objection”, he said, and clarified that, although conscientious objection is a right, there is no reason to judge the patient and less to provide misinformation about the procedure and the jurisprudence.
Is it really conscientious objection? According to Viviana Bohórquez, lawyer and coordinator of the Jacarandas movement, other organizations “lack ground” because conscientious objection “is very theoretical” and there are no real cases of doctors appealing to this resource in a direct and sensible way.
“I also worked as a researcher, I did my doctoral thesis in the hospitals in the south of Bogotá and -there- what the doctors do is dilate and leave the women hospitalized for several days until another doctor attends to them. They are lazy, they don’t respond to them and the women get tired and don’t come back (…) but just like conscientious objection, no. That only happens in the books. It doesn’t seem to me that conscientious objection is a limitation.”
The also doctor of law explained that despite the fact that there are no conscientious objections within the health system, what there are are “doctors who don’t want to be classified as objectors, but they don’t want to say so. Conscientious objection is done with denial and delay, but honest people who tell you ‘look, I’m against abortion, I can’t attend to you’, there isn’t, I haven’t received any cases.”
Misinformation in the health system
The three experts agree that there is an evident lack of information from health professionals when accessing an IVE. Viviana Bohórquez affirmed that “many women do not know that abortion is legal, free and is in the health system until week 24; So there are many cases in which they come to the collective looking for that information.” She too, she advised that there must be a “paradigm shift” centered on the woman’s decision and not the doctor’s.
“The inaction of the Ministry of Health is absurd, the lukewarm action of the Health Secretariats in Colombia is absurd, as is that of the EPS and IPS. It seems that they are not interested in women knowing their rights. We need to have conversations about this. No one in Colombia says that they have abortions, so, since these experiences are not mentioned, people keep the issue a lot secret and I think that we need about 10 years to overcome that. The State has to change and also society”, she pointed out.
Laura Gil, for her part, warned that not only do citizens need to be better informed about legal decisions and women’s rights in sexual and reproductive matters, but that we also have to delve into the academy: “We need the Doctors, as well as all health personnel, are trained and understand not only how the abortion is performed, but there must also be training on what conscientious objection is and how to exercise it.”
It was also clear in saying that there must be “training with a gender approach, as well as an awareness that health sciences students have to come out with that clear knowledge, but we are in universities where health sciences are not even taught. contraception because they are against it.”
Finally, Carolina Triviño called not only for the decisions of the Constitutional Court to be respected, but also for the rights of women: “It’s let them see that today we have a historic sentence, an extension of the rights that allow us to access the voluntary interruption of pregnancy with fewer barriers, and we hope that those that exist will be dismantled”, despite the fact that the coverage of health in the territories is minimal, this being another gap for carrying out safe IVEs for them.