Share

Share

Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Tweet Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on WhatsApp

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER

MEXICO CITY, Mexico. In Mexico, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ruled that it is unconstitutional to criminalize women, trans men, non-binary people, and those with the capacity to gestate who decide to terminate their pregnancy, as well as the medical personnel who provide this service.

The unanimous decision of the SCJN comes after an indirect appeal promoted by the organization Information Group on Reproduction Choice ( GIRE ) against the Congress of the Union and the Federal Executive for having issued a regulation that criminalizes abortion.

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) analyzed the injunction filed by GIRE and considered that articles 330 to 334 of the Federal Penal Code are unconstitutional because they impose a prison sentence on women and people with the capacity to gestate who voluntarily decide to terminate the pregnancy; as well as criminalizing medical personnel who provide abortion services.

The decision includes removing abortion from the Federal Penal Code and requiring justice personnel to comply with this resolution.

The impacts of the decision

The decision means that federal health institutions will no longer be able to criminalize people who choose to have an abortion, nor the medical personnel who perform the procedure. Furthermore, it obligates federal and local justice officials to implement this ruling.

“This First Chamber determines that the non-application of the rules that criminalize abortion at the federal level must be carried out by any jurisdictional and administrative authority, specifically, by the personnel of the health institutions involved with the practice of the interruption of pregnancy and the agents of the Public Ministry who receive the complaints for these acts,” states the approved project , which was prepared by Minister Ana Margarita Ríos Farjat.

This development is important because federal health institutions are using the Federal Penal Code as a pretext to refuse to provide abortion services. This is true even in states where legislatures have reformed local penal codes to decriminalize abortion, as journalist Marcela Nochebuena explains in this article for Animal Político .

Prior to this resolution, medical services at the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), the Institute of Security and Social Services for State Workers (ISSSTE), Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), and other federal health institutions only performed abortions in cases of pregnancy resulting from rape, when there was a danger of death to the pregnant person, and in cases of spontaneous and accidental abortions.

The earrings 

Following the decision of the SCJN, the Congress of the Union (the congress at the federal level) must remove abortion from the list of crimes in the Federal Penal Code.

However, the work to decriminalize abortion remains in the congresses, both local and federal.  

Since 2021, reforms to decriminalize abortion and guarantee the right to abortion in the General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence and the General Health Law have been frozen in the federal Congress. 

Even in 21 states of the country, the Congresses have still not reformed the penal codes to decriminalize abortion. 

The Mexican states where voluntary termination of pregnancy was decriminalized through reforms presented in the congresses are: Mexico City, Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Coahuila, Veracruz, Baja California, Colima, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Baja California Sur, Quintana Roo.

Progress toward decriminalizing abortion in Mexico has been made possible by the work of civil society organizations. In the case of GIRE and other local organizations, this has been achieved by filing injunctions to remove abortion from the list of crimes in the penal codes of all states where it has not yet been decriminalized by their respective legislatures, including the federal one.

Part of that legal strategy bore fruit last week in Aguascalientes , after the Supreme Court ordered the state's Congress to reform its penal code to decriminalize abortion.

“At GIRE, we trust that the country's entities, whose legislation still hinders reproductive autonomy, will take into account the criteria of the highest court of justice in order to guarantee the right to decide for women and people with the capacity to gestate,” the organization said in a statement.