Women and girls living in Mexico City had a right to a safe, legal and free abortion through the public health system during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy for long time. While most women are aborted in public hospitals, Ana, a 22-year-old law student from Mexico City, is paying for a legal abortion.
In July, the state of Veracruz became the fourth of Mexico’s 32 regions to decriminalize abortion. Deciding whether to influence abortion policy in the northern state of Coahuila, which has some of the strictest abortion laws and is subject to judicial review, effectively decriminalizes abortion in Mexico.
Mexico’s Supreme Court took the issue on Monday with eight of the 11 judges voting to repeal a law in the state of Coahuila that punishes women with up to three years in prison for having an abortion, except in cases of rape. The decision of the Mexican courts invalidates several provisions of the laws in the Mexican state of Coahuila, just across the Texas border, which have made abortion a criminal act. Abortion laws in Mexico’s northern state of Coahuila – where strict abortion laws have been the subject of judicial review – threatened women who had aborted illegally with three years in prison.
The Mexico Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, September 7, 2021 that it is unconstitutional to punish abortion and annulled several laws in the northern Coahuila state that criminalized abortion in the state. The Mexican court’s decision stands in sharp contrast to the recent move by the US Supreme Court to uphold a Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Mexico’s Supreme Court, a majority Catholic country, ruled that it was unconstitutional to prosecute women for having abortions.
The circumstances of the decision, published online here, relate to abortions performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, a period permitted in all four states where abortion is legal.
Under Mexico City Rules, three Mexican states permit women to have abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, while most states prohibit abortions except in cases of rape or health risks. In 2007 Mexico City (with 78.7% of the national population) offered women abortions at the twelfth week of pregnancy, 24% ahead of Cuba, Uruguay and Argentina and one of Latin America’s most liberal legislations on abortions. Following the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico, the states of Baja California and San Luis Potosi in 2008 enacted laws that grant personal rights from the moment of conception.
In 2021, its legal status varied state by state but on September 7th, 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that punishing abortion was unconstitutional and decriminalized abortion across the country. A landmark 2008 Supreme Court ruling found that legal obstacles to abortion in the Mexican Constitution, which “affirms the absolute constitutional protection of life during pregnancy,” violated women’s fundamental rights.
The decriminalization of abortion in Mexico means that women cannot no longer be prosecuted for having an abortion. Although abortion in all but three of Mexico City’s 32 states (Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Veracruz and Mexico City) is legal now, certain states could still jail women for abortions.
On Tuesday, abortion was decriminalized in all but four of the 32 Roman Catholic states. A number of US states have taken steps to restrict access to abortions, with Texas imposing a blanket ban on the procedure for the first six weeks of pregnancy last week, despite the US Supreme Court refusing to intervene. Only Mexico City and three other states allow abortions on request before Tuesday’s ruling.
Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion on Tuesday, delivering a major victory to women’s health advocates as the United States moves in the opposite direction. Abortion has long been illegal and restricted in Latin American countries, but Mexico is the latest majority-Catholic country to loosen its restrictions. The decision of Mexico’s Supreme Court to decriminalize abortion has been hailed as groundbreaking and experts said it could open the door to legalizing abortion in the Roman Catholic country and have ripple effects across the region.
The Supreme Court of Mexico ruled that punishing abortions is unconstitutional on Tuesday, partly because the United States has enacted stricter laws against the procedure. While its ruling sets a legal precedent for the nation, its implementation requires legal challenges in Mexico’s 28 states that criminalize abortion, as well as legislative changes in state legislatures.
Rebecca Ramos, the director of the GIRES non-governmental organization for reproductive rights, believes that the decision will prompt lawmakers to review their laws in states where abortion remains a crime or to take legal action. The court decision will have no immediate impact on women who have been jailed for having abortions, Avila-Guillen said.
Abortion activists said Mondragon, whose efforts to make abortion safe and available in Mexico City will be remembered as a milestone in the Latin American reproductive rights movement. Inspired by the struggle and triumphs of tens of thousands of women in Mexico who embraced the green headscarf as a symbol, abortion activists in Argentina have called for abortion to be decriminalized, and abortion is now legal in four states after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Of the women detained in Mexico for abortion, 4,600 have launched investigations, said Veronica Cruz, a lawyer and activist who is the director of the Las Libres Free collective.
Fewer women in all four states will be able to exercise the right to a safe abortion. The women the most likely to rely on dangerous methods to terminate their pregnancy are poor women and women living in rural areas where they do not have access to safe abortion facilities, such as Mexico City.
