In a landmark ruling, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation unanimously decided to decriminalize abortion nationwide. This ruling protects the human right of women and people with the capacity to gestate to access abortion in federal health institutions, and sets a precedent for Latin America.
The majority of Mexico’s 130 million inhabitants are Catholic, making the court’s decision a historic landmark. The ruling is a major victory for the reproductive rights movement in Mexico, as well as across Latin America, where abortion is illegal in Chile with the exception of health risks to the mother, rape, or fetal malformations. Abortion remains illegal in Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
Previously, in 2021, the Supreme Court determined that criminalizing abortion was unconstitutional. However, prior to today’s ruling, 11 of Mexico’s 32 states had already decriminalized services, Mexico City was the first Latin American jurisdiction to authorize abortion in 2007, allowing it up to 12 weeks.
“No more backstreet abortions, but instead the right to exercise our sexual and reproductive rights,” said Atenea Jiménez, executive coordinator of the JASS Mesoamerica collective, a network of feminist organizations.
Amidst the continued fight for gender equality in Mexico and Latin America, the ruling on Wednesday reaffirmed women’s rights and autonomy as it seeks to protect and advance the progress of feminism.
With information from EFE y El Pais