Martha Gonzalez

Who was Martha Gonzalez?

Martha Sulay González was a Colombian woman whose case led to significant reforms in abortion law in that country: as a direct response to the Gonzalez case, the Constitutional Court decriminalized abortion under specific circumstances - most notably, the circumstance of significant risk to the mother's life.

In 2005, Gonzalez was two months pregnant with her fourth child, when a routine gynecological examination revealed that she was in the early stages of uterine cancer. She sought radiation therapy, but was denied because this would have terminated her pregnancy. By the time she gave birth, the cancer had metastasized to her intestine.