Colombia guarantees the IVE to indigenous women without community barriers

Resolution 001575 of 2026, issued by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, guarantees timely, comprehensive, and barrier-free access to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVE) for women and people with the capacity to gestate belonging to indigenous peoples. The regulation, signed in Bogotá on July 29, 2026, and published in the Official Gazette on Monday, September 7, 2026, complies with the twelfth order of the Unification Sentence 297 of 2025 of the Constitutional Court.

The administrative act adds article 10.1 to Resolution 051 of 2023 and modifies numeral 4.2 of the Technical and Operational Guideline of the Maternal Perinatal Comprehensive Health Care Route, adopted through Resolution 3280 of 2018. It was signed by Minister Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo Martínez, in exercise of the powers conferred by Law 100 of 1993, Law 715 of 2001, and Decree 120 of 2026.

A right without community intermediation

The resolution establishes that the entities of the General Social Security Health System, the Indigenous Health Promoting Entities (EPS-I), the Indigenous Health Service Provider Institutions (IPS-I), and any actor within the indigenous health system must guarantee immediate access to the IVE when the woman or pregnant person expresses their decision.

In no case may traditional authorities, community organizations, or administrative authorities subject, condition, delay, or impede access to collective decisions, community authorizations, cultural assessments, or customary practices. The Constitutional Court pointed out in SU-297 of 2025 that leaving the final decision regarding the intention of an indigenous woman or girl to interrupt a pregnancy in the hands of community authorities ignores the State’s obligations to eradicate all forms of violence against women.

Confidentiality and direct access to the network

The regulation imposes absolute confidentiality of information related to the request, care, and follow-up of the IVE. Clinical, administrative, or personal information may not be disclosed or used to impose sanctions, exert pressure, activate social control mechanisms, or carry out community disciplinary processes.

When barriers, limitations, or denials occur on the part of the EPS-I or IPS-I, indigenous women or pregnant people may go directly to any institution in the public or private network, without additional authorizations or community intermediation. Furthermore, the institution providing the care will be entitled to the recognition and compensation of the costs incurred.

Ethnic approach and expansion of roles

Care must incorporate an ethnic approach, respect for worldview and cultural identity, guaranteeing culturally pertinent information and access to an interpreter or translator when the native language is not Spanish, without this constituting a barrier to timely access.

The resolution also updates the technical indications for IVE (voluntary interruption of pregnancy), recognizing that duly trained nursing professionals can perform pharmacological IVE and vacuum aspiration, in line with the guidelines of the World Health Organization. This expansion seeks to improve access in rural and hard-to-reach territories, where the availability of medical human talent is limited.

The measure represents a significant advance in the protection of the sexual and reproductive rights of the indigenous population, by eliminating institutional and community barriers that have historically hindered access to a fundamental right recognized by constitutional jurisprudence since Judgment C-355 of 2006.

Source: Official Gazette (Colombia), edition 53,618, September 7, 2026, section I, p. 1 (official reference: Resolution 001575 of 2026).