Freedom of wombs

Free womb laws (Spanish: Libertad de vientres, Portuguese: Lei do Ventre Livre), also referred to as free birth or the law of wombs, was a 19th century judicial concept in several Latin American countries, that declared that all wombs bore free children. It abolished the legal principle of partus sequitur ventrem, which held that children of slaves were also slaves. Intended as a step towards gradual emancipation, it was unevenly adopted.