On April 13, 2007, the Center filed a third party intervention in support of the national reproductive health and family planning regulations authorizing the free distribution of emergency contraception (EC). The Center’s intervention was a direct response to a petition filed before the Chilean Constitutional Court by a group of conservative parliamentarians to outlaw the […]
17-year-old K.L. took on the country Peru for enabling officials to force her to carry a fatally-impaired fetus to term. When our client K.L. was seventeen years old, she found out that she was pregnant with an anencephalic fetus. Even though abortion is legal in Peru for therapeutic reasons, K.L. was illegally denied access to […]
Filing date: Amicus brief submitted to Supreme Courts in February 2008 Country/Region: , Mexico -LAC Plaintiff(s): GIRE Center Attorney(s): , Lilian SepulvedaPartners: International Commission of Jurists, GIRE Summary: In February of 2008, the Center, in collaboration with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), drafted a third-party brief before the Mexico Supreme Court, arguing in favor […]
I. IntroductionThe issue presented before the honorable Constitutional Court of Colombia in this case – whether the categorical ban on abortion in Article 122 of the Colombian Penal Code is constitutional – raises a question of first impression for this Court that involves the most fundamental rights of life, health and dignity.Constitutional courts and legislatures […]
What is FGM? Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is the collective name given to a number of cultural practices that involve the partial or total cutting of female genitals. FGM can be performed as early as infancy and as late as age thirty. However, most commonly, girls experience FGM between four and twelve years of age. […]
In 2005, anti-choice organizations in Ecuador filed a suit to outlaw emergency contraception, alleging that EC violates the right to life as established in the Ecuadorian constitution. As a result of their lawsuit, a lower court banned distribution of EC, and the Ministry of Health appealed this decision. The Center, in collaboration with the Latin […]
On June 5, 2008, in a landmark decision, the Colombian Council of State ruled against anti-choice groups’ efforts to ban emergency contraception. The court found that emergency contraception, commonly known as the “morning-after pill,” is a contraceptive method and not an abortifacient, and therefore, access to emergency contraception is in accordance with the right to […]
In April 2005, Colombian citizen Monica Róa, a former Center fellow and current attorney at Women’s Link Worldwide, filed a petition with the Colombian Constitutional Court challenging the constitutionality of Colombia’s abortion law, which categorically prohibited abortion. Her petition argued that the Constitution of Colombia requires exceptions to the prohibition of abortion that protect a […]
In May 2007, The Center for Reproductive Rights and Yale University’s Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic submitted a joint friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court of Nicaragua. Country/Region: , Nicaragua/LAC Center Attorney(s): , Lilian Sepúlveda and Alejandra Cardenas Partners: Ipas Central America and the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) Summary: , Filed […]
In April 2005, the Center filed an amicus brief with the European Court of Human Rights in support of a woman, D., who alleged that Ireland’s prohibition of abortion constitutes a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Filing date: April 2005 Country/Region: Ireland Plaintiff(s): D., a woman who was pregnant with twins, decided […]