Feminist demonstration in favor of women’s rights. (Guadalajara, March 9, 2023) Ulises Ruiz / AFP
As of Wednesday, Mexico’s Supreme Court has allowed women to challenge state laws that still ban abortion. An unprecedented decision that paves the way for decriminalization at the national level.
A great victory for women’s rights in Mexico. The country’s highest court ruled on Wednesday, June 21, that women can challenge Mexico’s state abortion laws.
Mexico’s highest court has specifically concluded that local regulations punishing abortion (the voluntary termination of pregnancy) are a violation of women’s rights. “The sole characteristic of a woman or person capable of bearing a child is sufficient to challenge the unconstitutionality of the provisions punishing abortion before justice,” the Court’s press release states.
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To each state, its legislation
Today, abortion is decriminalized in 11 of Mexico’s 32 states, with the capital, Mexico City, legalizing it in 2007, in most cases up to twelve weeks of pregnancy. But a decision announced by the Supreme Court on Wednesday could change everything. Specifically, this means that women living in states that criminalize abortion can now appeal whether they are pregnant or not. Which de facto leads to the legalization of abortion on a national level.
The criminalization of abortion contradicts women’s “rights to reproductive autonomy, life, non-discrimination, health and personal integrity,” the Supreme Court finds.
In 2016, the court struck down a previous bill that would have declared unconstitutional sections of the Federal Penal Code that suppressed abortion, which would have decriminalized it nationwide.
Medical abortion
According to official data, medical abortion is most commonly used in Mexico for the voluntary termination of pregnancy up to twelve weeks. It must be said that civil associations have created a network that will allow women to access this method throughout Mexico, although each state has the freedom to legislate as it wishes, including in terms of abortion. As is the case in the United States, where the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned a decision that guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion at the federal level.
Source: Le Figaro
