Abortion is not a crime: Mex. high court
Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday that abortion is not a crime, declaring it unconstitutional to levy penalties tied to the medical procedure.
“Today is a historic day for the rights of all Mexican women,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar said after the decision was announced. “It is a watershed in the history of the rights of all women, especially the most vulnerable.”
The ruling stood in sharp contrast to neighboring Texas, where a law banning most abortions in the state went into effect last Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block it.
“The nation’s Supreme Court Justice ruling reflects a historic struggle of the feminist movement for legal, safe and free abortion,” said the Mexico City pro-choice organization Information Group on Reproductive Choice (GIRE), in a statement. “We expect that throughout the country women and people who can become pregnant now have the conditions and freedom to determine their reproductive destiny.”
Until now, in most of largely Catholic Mexico the only legal grounds for abortion were for pregnancy resulting from sexual violence, according to GIRE.
The Mexico Supreme Court’s ruling annuls several provisions of a law from the state of Coahuila, which borders Texas, that had made abortion a criminal act. While it does not specifically legalize abortion, the decision establishes a historic precedent, an “obligatory criteria for all of the country’s judges” to act in the same way in similar cases, Zaldívar told Associated Press.
“From now on, you will not be able to, without violating the court’s criteria and the constitution, charge any woman who aborts under the circumstances this court has ruled as valid,” Zaldívar said.
Only four Mexican states — Mexico City, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Hidalgo — now allow abortion in most circumstances. The other 28 states penalize abortion with some exceptions.
The ruling can now be used to challenge laws that penalize women who have had abortions, and advocacy groups said they plan to do just that, as well as work to exonerate and release women jailed for having the procedure.
“Today banishes the threat of prison and the stigma that weighs on people who freely decide to end their pregnancy,” said Justice Luis María Aguilar.
Out of 11 Supreme Court judges, eight had expressed support for decriminalization, The Washington Post reported, making the decision fairly certain. Arguments began Monday.
Texas’ law also offers private citizens $10,000 to rat out their neighbors who might want to help a woman in need obtain an abortion and incentivizes those who successfully sue clinics, doctors or anyone else who helps a woman abort a fetus.
In Mexico, a powerful feminist movement has been transforming the nation, with female politicians making up half of Congress. The Mexico ruling opens the way for Texas women seeking legal abortions. Its influence could extend southward, throughout Latin America.
“This will not only have an impact in Mexico,” Melissa Ayala, GIRE’s coordinator of litigation, told The Washington Post. “It will set the agenda for the entire Latin American region.”