Mexico reaffirms its desire to decriminalize abortion
Contrary to the US trend, Mexico has confirmed its intention to criminalize abortion at the national level.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Guadalajara this Wednesday in support of legalizing abortion.
AFP
Mexico on Wednesday reaffirmed its intention to decriminalize abortion nationally, two years after the Supreme Court’s first ruling, against the tide of its neighboring United States. Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that “the Federal Penal Code, which punishes abortion, is unconstitutional” because it “violates the human rights of women and those of childbearing potential.”
Two years ago, on September 7, 2021, the same Supreme Court had already ruled that the criminalization of abortion was unconstitutional. In doing so, the court invalidated an article in the Penal Code of Coahuila (one of the 32 states of the federation) that provided for prison terms for women who voluntarily had abortions.
Mexico City is the first jurisdiction in Latin America to legalize abortion
Abortion is already decriminalized in a dozen of the 32 states that make up Mexico. It all started in 2007 in the capital, Mexico City, which was the first jurisdiction in Latin America to legalize abortion. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that women can challenge state laws that continue to criminalize abortion.
“All women and persons of childbearing potential should have access to abortion at federal health facilities,” the Group on Information for Selective Reproductive Services (GIRE) welcomed. Mexico, a country of nearly 130 million people, is 80% Catholic. During the Reformation of 1857 the separation of church and state was proclaimed.
On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Roe v. Wade guaranteed American women a constitutional right to an abortion beginning in 1973, and restored each state’s freedom to legislate on the matter. Since then, the country has been divided between twenty states that have prohibited or strictly prohibited access to abortion, mainly located in the south and center of the country, and along the coasts that have adopted the new guarantees.
AFP
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