This is a major step forward for women’s rights in Mexico: they will now be able to have free access to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in all federal health institutions. “The legal system that criminalizes abortion in the federal penal code is unconstitutional,” declared the highest judicial body in the country in a unanimous vote, because it “violates the human rights of women and people of gestational capacity.” Abortion, the court stipulates, is therefore no longer a “misdemeanor”.
A victory celebrated by the Mexican feminist group GIRE (Information Group on Selected Reproduction) which had taken the matter to court to have abortion removed from the federal penal code. “The green tide continues to grow”, rejoiced the collective, in reference to the green scarves representing the fight for the right to abortion.
The judgment rendered by the Court also stipulates that medical personnel who have performed an abortion can no longer be prosecuted. Previously, according to article 329 of the penal code, doctors could be banned from practicing for two to five years. This same article provided for a sentence of one to three years in prison for anyone who helped a woman to have an abortion.
Not the first time
This is not the first time that the Supreme Court has facilitated access to termination of pregnancy. In September 2021, she estimated that women who had abortions could no longer be prosecuted. And she had canceled several articles of a law, judged “unconstitutional”, of the state of Coahuila, in the north of the country, which provided for a prison sentence for those who voluntarily aborted and for the staff who helped them.
The 2021 decision had however only been applied in a dozen states, out of the 32 that make up Mexico. Mexico City had legalized abortion in 2007, the state of Oaxaca in 2019 and those of Veracruz and Hidalgo in 2021. In the other states, abortion was still prohibited: it is estimated that in total , between 750,000 and one million women use it clandestinely every year.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, nearly a third of these abortions required emergency medical interventions. The decision of the Court, which imposes the management of abortion in public medical centers, therefore proceeds from a concern for health.
Changing mindsets
This victory of the feminist movement testifies to the change in mentalities on the subject. The two competitors in the June 2024 presidential election – Xochitl Galvez (conservative opposition) and Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City nominated as candidate by the ruling party, Morena – support decriminalization.
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