Between protection and autonomy: a comparative analysis of legal approaches to abortion access for young people

Abstract

This article analyses national legal frameworks that regulate young people's access to abortion, focusing on how different approaches to decision-making authority can either facilitate or obstruct access to care. It explores how countries that have recently liberalised their abortion laws, namely Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico, have acknowledged the need to lower the ages of consent below 18 and integrate the principles of the "evolving capacities of the child" or "progressive autonomy" into their legislation. Each country's approach, whether lowering the age of consent in specific circumstances (Mexico), establishing differentiated age brackets with varying degrees of autonomy (Argentina), or removing age-based restrictions altogether (Colombia), offers a different mechanism for increasing young people's autonomy in decision-making involving abortion. The article also considers how a country that has experienced a recent regression in abortion rights, namely the United States, has also rolled back young people's ability to autonomously consent to abortion care and increased parental involvement in such decisions. Through a comparative analysis of these four countries' legal frameworks, the article concludes that sweeping changes to abortion law and policy - whether progressive or regressive in nature - can fundamentally alter young people's ability to consent to and access such care. It also issues a series of recommendations for the regulation of young people's abortion decision-making, including grounding relevant laws and policies in international human rights principles and linking them to laws and policies geared towards protecting young people's rights in general.