Katharine O’Brien, from the Texas-based 40 Days for Life, which has been working in the region since 2011, said the centres were vital: “It’s just so simple. The amount of training that is required to really be inspired by this is very little. You can explain that in one session.”
O’Brien trains locals on how to lead “prayerful” clinic protests. Activists are trained in “sidewalk counselling” outside abortion clinics to give women “other options” and “help them through what must be the most difficult time in their life”.
Representatives of the two main abortion providers in Colombia said this put lives at risk. “Women don’t stop seeking abortions,” said the Bogotá clinic director. “Instead, they seek out those services at clinics where there isn’t a heavy presence [of these protesters] … Many of these places aren’t legal and they aren’t safe.”
An estimated 75% of all abortions in the region are illegal and each year 760,000 women are treated for complications arising from unsafe abortions.
“If there is one thing we’ve noticed about the way that these anti-rights groups operate it is that they blame women for being women. They start to question which life is more important, and the final conclusion they come to is that the lives of women don’t matter,” said Sandra Mazo Cardona, director of Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir – Colombia, a Catholic feminist organisation.
“People have a right to have their beliefs and to work toward a goal that they think is laudable and fair. But it cannot be based on intimidation.”
