Causa Justa: a movement for reproductive freedom and autonomy
Green bandanas have colored the streets, squares, and various public spaces in Latin American countries over the past few years to accompany and represent the demands and claims for women’s right to decide about their bodies, particularly the right to abortion. Movements from the Southern Cone to Colombia, Central America, and the Caribbean have managed to position or draw attention to abortion in public debate and political agendas.
Colombia emerges as a reference and leader in advances regarding the right to abortion in Latin America (and even in the world), with the Ruling C-055 of February 21, 2022, which establishes the decriminalization of abortion up to 24 weeks —the broadest gestational limit achieved so far—allowing women, girls, trans men, and non-binary people to terminate pregnancy according to their decisions without having to provide explanations. After this period, the three grounds established in the previous Ruling C-355 of 2006 apply (danger to the woman’s life or integral health, fetal malformation, and rape or incest).
This historic achievement is the result of the Causa Justa (Just Cause) movement. Therefore, in ecognition of such a colossal victory, this 38th edition of Ideas Verdes magazine is dedicated to Causa Justa, a movement for reproductive autonomy and freedom, and to the women who made history.
Causa Justa emerged in 2017 on the initiative of la Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres, which has been defending sexual and reproductive rights in the country for 25 years. In 2020, other women’s, feminist, and human rights organizations, health service providers, academics, and think tanks joined Causa Justa, thus forming a movement that today comprises more than 100 organizations in over 20 territories in Colombia. Five organizations of Causa Justa (La Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres, Women’s Link Worldwide, Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, Grupo Médico por el Derecho a Decidir y Center for Reproductive Rights) filed a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court in September 2020 in order to eliminate the crime of abortion from the Penal Code.
In the texts that make up this magazine, pioneers, founders, and members of Causa Justa share the history, strategies, achievements, and lessons learned from this movement in Colombia for struggles and processes in other parts of the world.
Likewise, throughout the different articles, there is a call for permanent planning, analysis, and collective action in different dimensions because the negative responses and rollback mechanisms of anti-rights groups (both from religious and political sectors) remind us that not everything is won. With the achievement of the historic ruling, Causa Justa has not lowered its guard and continues to strengthen its networking for the social decriminalization of abortion, the implementation and protection of the ruling, the construction of public policy and the comprehensive regulatory framework, advocacy, organizational and movement strengthening, the production of knowledge and information with arguments for different audiences and the production of messages together with a permanently active communications plan.
Ultimately, Causa Justa has a comprehensive strategy is an example and inspiration not only for other struggles and other women’s and feminist movements, but also for the social movement in general that seeks profound social, political, and cultural transformations. This edition of the magazine carries in its pages what the members of Causa Justa always remind us: total decriminalization and the right to abortion are part of the recognition and guarantee of women’s rights as a fundamental dimension of democracy.