Latin America’s Green Wave

The Center for Reproductive Rights and its partners are members of the Green Wave reproductive rights movement, which advocates for expanded abortion access throughout Latin America. The movement is named for the green bandanas worn by its members.

The Green Wave’s efforts have resulted in significant advances for reproductive rights in Latin America, including:

• The ruling by Mexico’s highest court to decriminalize abortion nationwide on the federal level in 2023.
• The decriminalization of abortion in Argentina up to 14 weeks of gestation in 2020.  
• A 2021 ruling by the Supreme Court of Mexico declaring the absolute criminalization of abortion to be unconstitutional. 
• The Constitutional Court of Colombia’s ruling to decriminalize abortion up to 24 weeks of gestation in 2022 in the “Causa Justa” lawsuit by the Center and its partners. 

The movement anticipates court rulings in 2023-24 that could improve reproductive rights in the region, including:

• The Beatriz case before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights about the impacts of the total abortion ban in El Salvador;
• The Niñas No Madres (Girls Not Mothers) movement’s case, a lawsuit against the United Nations Human Rights Committee on behalf of four survivors of sexual violence from Ecuador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua; and
• Cases at the Ecuador Constitutional Court and Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court to improve access to legal abortion.

Watch for more news from the Center about the Green Wave and progress in Latin American reproductive rights.

Read more about the Green Wave:

• “Let’s Talk Repro” Series: Making Waves in Colombia with Catalina Martínez Coral
• Report: Colombia: Historic Advancement in the Decriminalization of Abortion (English and Spanish versions)