1 of 2 Only a dozen Mexican states had decriminalized abortion in their legislation Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC Only a dozen Mexican states had decriminalized abortion in their legislation Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC
Abortion was decriminalized at the national level in Mexico this Wednesday (6) after the country’s Supreme Court declared the ban on the procedure unconstitutional.
In a ruling by the Court’s First Senate, the ministers declared “that the legal system that penalizes abortion in the Criminal Code is unconstitutional.”
Legal experts argued that criminalization “violates the human rights of women and people with the possibility of pregnancy.”
With this decision, voluntary abortion cannot be punished if it is practiced in federal health facilities.
So far, 10 Mexican states have already legally permitted abortions most of them up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
With the decision of the First Panel, the right not to criminalize abortion becomes effective at the national level, as it is a decision that can no longer be challenged in lower courts.
Abortion of a pregnancy in cases of rape, malformations or danger to the mother was already permitted by law.
With this Wednesday’s resolution, Congress must regulate the practice for all other cases.
2 of 2 Decision does not automatically invalidate state laws Photo: Luis Barron/Eyepix Group/Future Publishing Via Getty Images/Via BBC Decision does not automatically invalidate state laws Photo: Luis Barron/Eyepix Group/Future Publishing Via Getty Images /Via BBC
However, the decision does not automatically invalidate state laws that still criminalize abortion.
What is changing for now is that judges at all levels must follow case law in cases that come before the Court.
The five ministers of the First Body four men and one woman analyzed a lawsuit filed by the feminist organization Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE) on articles 330 to 334 of the Penal Code, which provided for a prison sentence for abortions carried out in federal institutions. of the healthcare system.
The organization said it hopes the decision will encourage other states that still criminalize the practice to change their legislation.
Before the decision, antiabortion organizations had asked the Supreme Court to uphold the understanding of abortion as a crime.
The organizations Activate and Pasos Por la Vida said they had “presented 8,200 signatures from citizens demanding respect and protection for the unborn and pregnant women”.
The 2021 decision paved the way for national decriminalization
Ministers Alfredo Gutiérrez, Arturo Zaldívar and Juan Luis González Alcántara voted in favor of full federal decriminalization, while Margarita RíosFarjat and Jorge Pardo only defended the decision for the specific case being heard.
Although the Penal Code used to criminalize abortion, in practice it was unusual for prosecutors to bring charges of the crime.
According to a count by the newspaper Reforma, there were only 14 formal allegations of abortion between 2001 and 2019.
Back in September 2021, the plenary session of the Supreme Court of Mexico had declared the right to abortion constitutional in a Coahuila state law decision that provided a 1 to 3 year prison sentence for any woman who voluntarily performs an abortion or the person who carries out the abortion with consent.”
At the time, the decision only forced Coahuila to change the law and did not require that abortion be automatically legalized throughout Mexico or that states be required to change their laws.
In practice, the 2021 decision gave states leeway to uphold antiabortion penalties, which have been challenged by legal action on a casebycase basis, such as a lawsuit GIRE filed a few weeks ago challenging the Aguascalientes state legislature.
On August 30, the First Panel also decided against punishing abortions in this state.