Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide. The First Chamber of the High Court ruled that "the legal system that criminalizes abortion in the Federal Criminal Code is unconstitutional because it violates the human rights of women and people with the ability to gestate."
La Primera Sala de #LaCorte resolvió que es inconstitucional el sistema jurídico que penaliza el aborto en el Código Penal Federal, ya que viola los derechos humanos de las mujeres y personas con capacidad de gestar.
— Suprema Corte (@SCJN) September 6, 2023
"An act of gender-based violence and discrimination"
The decision, approved by a majority of three votes, orders "the Congress of the Union repeal the norms that criminalize voluntary abortion." According to the criteria of the Supreme Court, following the postulates of the most radical feminism:
The criminalization of abortion constitutes an act of gender-based violence and discrimination since it perpetuates the stereotype that women and pregnant people can only freely exercise their sexuality to procreate and reinforces the gender role imposed by motherhood as a mandatory fate.
The ruling eliminates sanctions on health workers involved in performing an abortion
The ruling insists that, as drafted, the legal system of the Federal Criminal Code "criminalizes abortion and the medical personnel who perform it," and goes "against the right of women and people with the ability to gestate to decide to terminate or continue a pregnancy." This, according to the High Court, "violates the rights to the free development of personality, health, equality and non-discrimination and reproductive autonomy."
In addition, the Supreme Court determined that "the norm that imposes sanctions on medical personnel for practicing their profession, such as nurses and midwives who help perform an abortion or provide assistance during its execution, is also unconstitutional since it generates a discriminatory effect that translates into a lower availability of trained professionals willing to practice it, and this directly impacts the health system and in the reproductive rights of women and pregnant people."
Abortion remains illegal in 20 of Mexico's 32 states
The ruling does not directly affect local laws, so abortion remains illegal in 20 of the country's 32 majority-Catholic states. However, the organization GIRE (Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida), which filed the lawsuit against the Penal Code and Congress, announced that they will work to eliminate abortion completely from all the country's penal codes.
💚💚💚Por acá te contamos detalles : pic.twitter.com/2Ygynrseu5
— GIRE (@GIRE_mx) September 6, 2023
