Mexico’s Supreme Court on Wednesday struck the crime of abortion from the federal penal code, ruling that state laws banning the procedure are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights.
A reproductive rights group stressed that this decision will require the Federal Public Health Service and all federal health agencies to allow abortion to anyone who requests it.
“No woman or pregnant woman, nor any healthcare provider should be punished for performing an abortion,” the group said in a statement.
The Supreme Court decision had immediate repercussions on social media, the Associated Press (AP) agency reported.
“Today is a day of victory and justice for Mexican women,” emphasized the National Institute of Women of Mexico through the social network X (formerly Twitter).
The government organization noted that this was a “huge step” towards gender equality.
The higher court stressed in the X that “the legal system that criminalizes abortion” in Mexican federal law is unconstitutional because it “violates the human rights of women and persons of childbearing potential.”
The decision came two years after a court ruled that abortion was not a crime in a northern state.
That decision triggered a slow statewide decriminalization process.
Last week, Aguascalientes (center) became the twelfth state to abolish criminal penalties, and judges in states that still criminalize abortion will have to take the higher court’s decision into account.
Abortion rights activists will have to continue pushing for legalization state by state, though Wednesday’s ruling should make that easier.
Government authorities can also act on their own to remove penalties against abortion.
Countries across Latin America have taken steps in recent years to lift abortion restrictions, a trend often referred to as the “green wave” in reference to the green scarves worn by women protesting the region’s abortion rights.
The changes in Latin America contrast sharply with increasing abortion restrictions in parts of the United States.
Mexico City was the first Mexican jurisdiction to decriminalize abortion fifteen years ago.
After decades of work by activists across the region, the trend gained momentum in Argentina, where the procedure was legalized in 2020. In 2022, Colombia, a very conservative country, did the same.
Source: DN
