Abortion Rights and Reproductive Justice in Latin America: Recent Landmark Decisions from Mexico and Colombia

Date: 

Friday, October 21, 2022, 11:00am

Location: 

Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138

This event is open for both in-person and virtual attendance. In-person attendance is open to the Harvard Community. Register now to ensure you receive event location and updates. To register for this event, click here.

NOTE: Access to Harvard buildings it restricted to Harvard ID holders. If you are unable to attend in-person, this panel discussion will also be available virtually, as an online webinar. To ensure that you will receive access to the livestream and be kept up to date on any changes to the event, register now. We will send out a link to the livestream of the event to all registrants the day before and day of the event. Last registration is 10:30am on the day of the event.

Welcome: Carmel Shachar, Executive Director, Petrie-Flom Center
Introduction: Alicia Ely Yamin, Lecturer on Law and Senior Fellow in Global Health and Rights, The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School
Speakers: José Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena, Justice of the Supreme Court of Mexico; Natalia Ángel Cabo, Justice of the Constitutional Court of Colombia

As the U.S. Supreme Court reversed half a century of jurisprudence in Dobbs, rejecting a fundamental right to abortion, courts across Latin America have made progress in the opposite direction. A so-called “Green Wave” has swept across some of the most populous countries in a region that was formerly known for having the most restrictive abortion laws. In 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that complete criminalization of abortion was unconstitutional, triggering changes in state laws and regulation of abortion throughout much of the country. In 2022, the Constitutional Court of Colombia decriminalized abortion until 24 weeks of gestation, with further exceptions to criminalization thereafter. This event will situate these landmark decisions in the historical trajectories of the respective Courts’ jurisprudence. The discussion will explore the role of differing constitutional frameworks and approaches to constitutional interpretation, as well as regional dynamics and the impacts of evolving understandings of abortion rights under international law.

Sponsored by the Global Health and Rights Project (GHRP), a collaboration between the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator (GHELI)