Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion nationwide

Mexico became the largest Latin American nation to legalize abortion yesterday as the country’s Supreme Court declared the unconstitutionality of a rule banning the procedure. 

The decision decriminalized abortion on a federal level, following years of individual rulings against prohibitions on a provincial basis. Mexican courts had already legalized abortion in 12 of the country’s 31 states, including the capital, Mexico City.

The resolution was signed in response to a complaint filed by GIRE, an NGO aimed at “reproductive justice” focused on issues such as “contraception, obstetric violence, maternal mortality, assisted reproduction, and work-life balance.” 

The decision means that all federal public health institutions can offer terminations without fear of punishment for patients or health professionals. 

Notably, the announcement included language arguing that any “gestating person” should also have access to the procedure, meaning that abortion can also be made available for transexual men who were born genetically female.

Details on methods, clinics, and trimester limits will be released in the coming days, when the full text of the ruling is made available. 

Mexico now became the fifth Latin American country to legalize abortion, following Cuba in 1965, Uruguay in 2012, Argentina in 2021, and Colombia in 2022.

Cuba’s legalization came six years after its 1959 Communist revolution, while Uruguay’s reform also came relatively early, in line with the country’s historic secular tradition. A feminist “green wave” favoring legalization started in Argentina in 2017, inspiring change in some of the continent’s largest countries during subsequent years.

As opposed to Argentina and Uruguay, where new legislation was passed to replace the old laws, it was the judiciary that legalized abortion in Colombia and Mexico.

The reforms contrast with the trend seen lately in the U.S., which had originally legalized abortion through its famous Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973. That decision was overruled last year when Supreme Court justices said the original decision had reached outside of federal jurisdiction. 

Other large Latin American countries such as Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Chile still have restrictive legislation laws, although the latter has come close to legalizing the procedure in the recent past. 

• Read more: Latin American public opinion is turning pro-choice

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