Bogotá, November 11 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Colombia's Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre said on Tuesday he will introduce a bill next week into the lower chamber to legalize abortion in the country, at least during the first three months of a woman pregnancy.

The bill would completely decriminalize voluntary abortion during the first trimester and recognize a woman's rights to control her reproductive life.

In Latin America, only Cuba allows women to obtain abortions without restriction. In 2012, Uruguay legalized abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Although Colombia’s attorney general defended the idea of a reproductive right “without restrictions,” women in Colombia who wish to have an abortion would still have to present a certificate from a medical institution declaring that they have received “detailed information about abortion and its eventual consequences.”
       
The introduction of the bill follows the case of a local attorney who decided to bring a case against actress Carolina Sabino, 38, over an illegal abortion she allegedly received. Montealegre announced September 13th that he would both dismiss the case and seek to end criminal penalties for similar cases.

Currently, a woman in Colombia can legally obtain an abortion only if she was victim of rape, if the pregnancy poses a risk to her physical or mental health, or if the fetus was diagnosed with a serious malformation. In any other case, women face between 16 to 54 months in prison if they decide to terminate a pregnancy.

Some 400,000 abortions are estimated to be carried out in Colombia every year, most illegally, with poor sanitary conditions costing the lives of dozens of women every year.