# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
by: Associated Press

Posted: / Updated:

FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2020 file photo, a woman holds a banner reading, in Spanish, "Legal, safe, and free abortion, legalize and decriminalize abortion now, for the independence and autonomy of our bodies," as abortion-rights protesters demonstrate in front of the National Congress on the "Day for Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean," in Mexico City. The Supreme Court of Mexico has on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, annulled several statutes on the northern state of Coahuila that criminalized abortion. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that it is unconstitutional to punish abortion, unanimously annulling several provisions of a law from Coahuila - a state on the Texas border - that had made abortion a criminal act.

The decision will immediately affect only the northern border state, but it establishes a historic precedent and "obligatory criteria for all of the country's judges," compelling them to act the same way in similar cases, said court President Arturo Zaldívar. "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."

Those circumstances will be clarified when the decision is published, but everything points to that referring to abortions carried out within the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy, the period allowed in the four states where abortion is already legal.

The decision comes one week after a Texas law took effect prohibiting abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity in the fetus. It allows any private citizen to sue Texas abortion providers who violate the law, as well as anyone who "aids or abets" a woman getting the procedure.

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.

Mexico is a heavily Roman Catholic country. The church was a powerful institution through colonial times and after Mexico's independence, but a reform movement in the mid-19th century sharply limited the church's role in daily life. Anticlerical efforts at times led to bloodshed, especially during the Cristero Rebellion from 1926 to 1929.

The topic still remains controversial in Mexico, however. The divide was on display Tuesday as groups from both sides demonstrated outside the court.

In previous decisions, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of women who had been imprisoned or had their rights violated for abortions. But Rebecca Ramos, director of the nongovernmental reproductive rights group GIRE, said the latest case was the first time the justices debated the fundamental question of whether abortion should be considered a crime or not.

The decision "is a reflection of the historic fight of the feminist movement for legal, safe and free abortion," GIRE said in a statement. "We hope that in the whole country women and people with the capacity to become pregnant have the conditions and the freedom to decide their reproductive destiny."

Justice Margarita Ríos Farjat criticized those who she said trample on women's rights under the banner of "pro-life." She said women are labelled "ignorant" and "bad or egotistical, because good women complete the pregnancy and put the baby up for adoption."

Ramos believes the decision will also lead state legislatures where abortion remains a crime to review their laws before facing legal action.

The decision could potentially open another option for Texas women seeking legal abortions. For years, some women in south Texas have crossed the border to go to Mexican pharmacies to buy misoprostol, a pill that makes up half of the two-drug combination prescribed for medical abortions.

Legal abortions could become accessible now along Mexico's long shared border with Texas.

Justice Luis María Aguilar said, "Today banishes the threat of prison and the stigma that weighs on people who freely decide to end their pregnancy."

By MARÍA VERZA, Associated Press

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mexico's Supreme Court rules that abortion is not a crime

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by: Associated Press Posted: / Updated: MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that it is unconstitutional to punish abortion, unanimously annulling several provisions of a law from Coahuila - a state on the Texas border - that had made abortion a criminal act.

# data[].attributes.body
References
Romero, T. (2021, July 5). Main religion affiliations in Mexico. Statista. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/275436/religious-affiliation-in-mexico/.

Fishback, T. (2021, September 13). Mexico's Supreme court votes to decriminalize ABORTION, despite Country's Pro-life history. Fact Based America. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://fbanews.org/2021/09/13/mexicos-supreme-court-votes-to-decriminalize-abortion-despite-countrys-pro-life-history/.

Jones, H. (2021, September). Picture of women protesting for right to abortion. Coha.org. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.coha.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/aborto_legal.jpg.

Kitroeff, N., & Lopez, O. (2021, September 8). Abortion is no longer a crime in mexico. but most women still can't get one. The New York Times. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/world/americas/mexico-abortion-access.html.

Mary Beth Sheridan, A. I. C. (2021, September 7). Mexico decriminalizes abortion, a dramatic step in world's second-biggest Catholic country. The Washington Post. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/07/mexico-abortion-supreme-court/.

Press, A. (2021, September 7). Mexico's Supreme court rules that abortion is not a crime. FOX 2. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://fox2now.com/news/national/mexicos-supreme-court-rules-that-abortion-is-not-a-crime/.

Rodriguez, R. (2021, September). The fight for the right to abort. LatinTimes.com. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://images.latintimes.com/sites/latintimes.com/files/2014/01/22/abortion-protestors-mexico-city.jpg.

Romo, R. (2021, September 13). Analysis: Mexico's Abortion ruling could make WAVES beyond its borders. CNN. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/13/americas/mexico-abortion-ruling-regional-impact-cmd-intl/index.html.

# data[].attributes.headline
Picketers working to gain the right to abortion

# data[].attributes.subject
Picketers working to gain the right to abortion

# data[].attributes.headline
Mexico's high court ruling on abortion could have global impacts

# data[].attributes.subject
Mexico's high court ruling on abortion could have global impacts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
mexico's abortion ruling could make waves beyond its borders - cnn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Analysis: Mexico's abortion ruling could make waves beyond its borders

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One women's right leader consulted by CNN says the unanimous ruling, which found penalizing abortion to be unconstitutional, could make Mexico a destination for women from abroad.

# data[].attributes.headline
Catholic Mexico shocks the world by decriminalizing abortion

# data[].attributes.subject
Catholic Mexico shocks the world by decriminalizing abortion

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Religious conservatives pray outside the Supreme Court of Justice in Mexico City on Monday as judges debated the decriminalization of abortion. (Sashenka Gutierrez/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's supreme court voted Tuesday to decriminalize abortion, a striking step in a country with one of the world's largest Catholic populations and a decision that contrasts with tighter restrictions introduced across the border in Texas.

Ten supreme court judges ruled unconstitutional a law in northern Coahuila state that imposed up to three years of prison for women who underwent illegal abortions, or people who aided them. The 11th judge was absent during the vote. The ruling is binding on other states.

"Today is a watershed in the history of the rights of women and pregnant people, above all the most vulnerable," Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar said.

The vote comes as a powerful women's movement is transforming Mexico. Female politicians now make up half of the National Congress, and an ambitious constitutional reform passed in 2019 aims to ensure gender equality in senior government positions. While abortion remains illegal in most of Latin America, there has been a surge in demonstrations demanding more rights for women, particularly focused on rising violence.

Mexico's bold break with machismo: Women are now half of Congress and gender parity is the law

"This will not only have an impact in Mexico; it will set the agenda for the entire Latin American region," said Melissa Ayala, coordinator of litigation for the Mexican feminist organization GIRE.

Four countries in Latin America allow abortion under virtually all circumstances in the early stages of pregnancy: Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay and Guyana. At the other end of the spectrum, some nations forbid abortion for any reason. In El Salvador, women accused of aborting a fetus can be prosecuted on assault or homicide charges, and face decades in prison.

Four of Mexico's 32 federal entities have broadly legalized the procedure - Oaxaca, Veracruz, Hidalgo and Mexico City. Abortion has also been available to women who became pregnant through rape.

A handful of antiabortion protesters prayed and demonstrated outside the supreme court Tuesday as the justices wrapped up their second day of arguments. The Catholic Church had expressed its concern a day earlier, in an editorial in its magazine Desde la Fe - "From the Faith." "Don't create a huge setback just to please an ideology in vogue, or due to peer pressure," it urged the judges.

The conservative National Action Party also rejected the court's arguments. "We are in favor of defending life from the moment of conception until natural death," it said in a statement.

Yet the decision was out of the hands of politicians. Under Mexican law, a supreme court ruling supported by at least eight justicessupersedes state laws.

Abortion won't become widely available right away, but the ruling will "outline a route, a criteria" that states will use to change their laws, said Diego Valadés, a former supreme court judge.

"Abortion has been effectively decriminalized in Mexico," said Paula Avila-Guillen, executive director of the New York-based Women's Equality Center. "And every woman currently imprisoned in the country for abortion can use this precedent to be freed."

It's unclear how many Mexicans have been jailed on abortion charges. In a recent study, GIRE found at least 500 criminal trials were held between 2007 and 2016, but it acknowledged that it was unable to find data for many states.

Mexican feminists occupy building, demand end to violence against women

Mexico has the world's second-largest population of Catholics, after Brazil. Around three-quarters of Mexicans identify as members of the faith, according to census data. But the government is officially secular, and the church has been losing influence, due in part to clerical sex-abuse scandals.

Mexicans have also become increasingly aware of the problem of unwanted pregnancies, especially among teenagers. More than 1 million abortions are performed each year in Mexico, most in unsafe conditions, according to estimates by the U.S.-based Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports access to reproductive health.

"The effects on women's health, including the number of deaths registered due to clandestine abortions, and the number of child pregnancies, represent a profound social problem," said Valadés. "So the attitude of most of society toward abortion has changed, despite the resistance of ecclesiastical authorities."

Analysts said the ruling reflected years of activism by women's groups who have promoted gender equity and rights in federal and state governments, health ministries and courts. Before the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of women joined protests against femicide and labor abuses, in a burgeoning movement also fueled by the global "#MeToo" phenomenon.

"The Mexican supreme court understood the climate had changed," said Denise Dresser, a prominent political scientist. She noted that political factors may have also been in play. Zaldívar, the chief justice, has been under fire for his close relationship with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. A congressional maneuver that would have extended the chief justice's term was recently dropped, after critics assailed it as unconstitutional.

"This is a way of recuperating his reputation as a progressive," said Dresser. "It's a way in which the court positions itself as a protector of rights, when rights are being limited or are being suppressed in other areas."

López Obrador rose to power as a leader of the left, but many feminists have expressed disappointment with his policies. He cut funds for women's shelters as part of a broader austerity program and has expressed suspicion that opposition political parties are behind the women's movement. The president has defended his record, noting he named Mexico's first cabinet in which women made up half of the members.

His winning coalition included a small party, Social Encounter, that is firmly opposed to abortion. For his part, López Obrador has been neutral on the subject.

"Women have to sort this out, the Mexican people have to sort this out," he said at his daily news conference Tuesday, when asked about the court deliberations. "We have acted, in my case as president, with prudence, in a respectful manner, because these are very controversial, polemical topics. And we don't want to encourage any confrontation."

The ruling comes as Texas is implementing a law that effectively bans abortions after six weeks. Republican leaders in at least seven states are considering copying it. The Guttmacher Institute said recently that more abortion restrictions had been enacted by U.S. states in 2021 than in any year since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Argentina legalized abortion. Here's how it happened.

Justice Department to protect women seeking abortions in Texas

In Mexico, here's what a day without women looks like

Updated December 3, 2020

Losing Control: How criminal groups are transforming Mexico
The search for the disappeared points to Mexico's darkest secrets The sniper rifles flowing to Mexican cartels show a decade of U.S. failure With its leader in jail, this city cowered to his will Violent criminal groups are eroding Mexico's authority and claiming more territory As Mexico's security deteriorates, the power of the military grows Today's Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mexico decriminalizes abortion, a dramatic step in world's second-biggest Catholic country

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
MEXICO CITY - Mexico's supreme court voted Tuesday to decriminalize abortion, a striking step in a country with one of the world's largest Catholic populations and a decision that contrasts with tighter restrictions introduced across the border in Texas.

# data[].attributes.headline
Despite the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico, there is still little to no access

# data[].attributes.subject
Despite the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico, there is still little to no access

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Supreme Court's decision set a legal precedent for the nation. But applying it to all of Mexico's states will be a long path, and women are still facing prosecution.

People gather to support the decision of Mexico's Supreme Court to declare the criminalization of abortion as unconstitutional on Tuesday in Saltillo, Mexico. Credit... Daniel Becerril/Reuters

MEXICO CITY - When the Supreme Court in Mexico issued a historic decision on Tuesday declaring that having an abortion was not a crime, activists across the country celebrated. On Wednesday, they got back to work, taking on the long and arduous process of ensuring that the legal shift applies across Mexico.

Among their top priorities are helping the women who need it most: those facing criminal penalties, often after having been reported to the authorities for trying to induce an abortion themselves under dangerous conditions.

"A woman who decides to get an abortion is already vulnerable, and then we also have to confront the dire situation of believing we will face punishment," said Yetlanezi Pech, who was rushed to a hospital, bleeding, after an attempted abortion, only to have an emergency room doctor deny her help and turn her in to authorities.

"I felt so much fear, I felt so unsafe, I felt really, really bad," she said. "And I also felt alone."

Ms. Pech is among the thousands of women who have been investigated for illegally obtaining abortion in recent years. In the first seven months of this year alone, 432 investigations were opened across Mexico into cases of illegal abortion, according to the Mexican government.

The ruling on Tuesday set a legal precedent for the nation - and stands in stark contrast to the trend in the United States, where Texas and other states have recently moved to restrict abortion. The court's decision also raised the prospect of Mexico eventually becoming a destination for American women seeking to end their pregnancies, advocates said, though that would require removing the many obstacles that make abortion difficult to obtain in much of the country.

Tuesday's decision applies only to the border state of Coahuila, and putting it into practice nationwide requires either legal challenges in each of the 28 states in Mexico that still criminalize the procedure, or a change in law by state legislatures. The justices did not specify how far into a pregnancy a woman can legally obtain an abortion, meaning those terms will likely be determined at the state level.

A leading abortion rights group in Mexico, GIRE, said that it would push for abortion to be legal in Coahuila for 12 weeks after conception at a minimum - a time limit established in the law that made abortion legal in Mexico City and which was previously validated by the Supreme Court.

If that were the case, Coahuila would have more permissive abortions rules than neighboring Texas, where the state legislature recently implemented a law that prohibits most abortions after about six weeks. In time, women from Texas could potentially cross the border to have an abortion - but for now, there wouldn't be enough infrastructure in place to meet the need, activists said.

"There is more to be done before women and people who can get pregnant in Texas are able to get the service in Coahuila," said Melissa Ayala García, coordinator of litigation for GIRE. "We still have a ways to go to ensure the service is provided."

The Texas law bars abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in the embryo. There is no heart at this stage of development, only electrical activity in developing cells that starts at around six weeks, before many women are even aware they are pregnant.

Activists in Mexico have already begun working on a strategy to force states to fall in line with the court's ruling, though their fight to make abortion legal and safe across the country could be a long one. Only Mexico City, and three other states, allowed abortions on request before Tuesday's decision.

"We are already organized and ready to take advantage of the opportunity that the court's new decision offers," said Arely Torres Miranda, a reproductive rights advocate in the state of San Luis Potosí. "What we need to do is make them change the law."

Protestors opposed to the ruling gathered in Mexico City on Tuesday. Credit... Gustavo Graf Maldonado/Reuters

That plan is likely to meet resistance. Mexico's conservative PAN party, one of the main opposition parties, has fought efforts to legalize the procedure.

"The party clearly has both in its platform and in its principles the right to life from conception," said Damián Zepeda Vidales, a PAN senator and former party leader.

Mr. Zepeda, who said he would personally oppose legalization efforts in the Senate, added that the party was waiting until the Supreme Court published the decision behind Tuesday's ruling to determine its national strategy.

Since Mexico City legalized abortion in 2007, a network of activists based there has worked to offer women seeking abortion a safe path, either by transporting them to the capital or providing them misoprostol, a drug commonly used to induce abortion.

But many women are too scared to reach out to those groups and opt to obtain clandestine abortions.

"We have seen terrible cases where they do it with coat hangers, where they hit their bellies," Ms. Torres Miranda said. "They put their lives at risk."

When those methods go wrong or lead to excessive bleeding, women often go to hospitals. But federal law requires medical providers to notify authorities when a patient presents signs of having been involved in criminal activity - such as having an abortion.

"Yesterday's ruling will also allow us, when we modify the law, to remove the obligation for the health sector to report when they discover an abortion," Ms. Torres Miranda said.

Generally, the women who are most marginalized - who are poor and live in rural areas - are the ones who face criminal penalties for having an abortion, Ms. Torres Miranda said.

It was not clear how many women in total are currently facing prosecution or are in prison for having an abortion, activists said, because comprehensive state-level data has been difficult to gather.

Ms. Pech said that as soon as she got to the emergency room after her at-home abortion went wrong two years ago, she was treated as though she did not deserve medical attention. The doctor who admitted Ms. Pech accused her of being a drug addict and persuaded her colleagues not to offer any help.

"No one wanted to come near me because I was in the process of having an abortion," Ms. Pech said. When she was finally taken to surgery, she said, her partner at the time was told that both of them would soon be detained for the crime of ending the pregnancy.

"The same doctor who received me called the authorities to come arrest me," she said. She was able to quickly hire a lawyer and avoid arrest. But before the lawyer agreed to fight the case in court, he came to her house to deliver an ultimatum.

"He told me I had to ask God for forgiveness for what I had done," she said. "And then he would help me."

Ms. Pech, who has two sons, said that with the lawyer's assistance she managed to avoid facing criminal penalties.

Tuesday's landmark decision is the first of several cases on abortion rights to be taken up by the Supreme Court this month. On Thursday, justices will examine whether a provision in a law in Sinaloa state that protects life from conception is similarly unconstitutional. Given the court's recent rulings in favor of abortion access, analysts say it is very likely that the judges will rule to strike the law.

"That would also be historic," said Ms. Ayala, the litigation coordinator for GIRE. "We are in a very, very, very important September."

But among the general population, the issue remains divisive: Mexico is a largely socially conservative country where the Catholic church holds significant sway. A majority of Mexicans are still opposed to legal abortion, polling shows.

But attitudes have shifted over time. In 2005, just 12 percent of the country was in favor of legalizing abortion in all cases, according to a poll from the research firm Parametria. A 2019 poll conducted by the El Financiero newspaper found that almost one-third of Mexicans said they were in favor of full legalization.

This week's decision signaled, for Ms. Pech at least, that change may finally come, and other women may be spared the suffering she experienced.

"This opens the possibility that these things won't happen anymore," she said. "There's no reason this has to happen."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Abortion Is No Longer a Crime in Mexico. But Most Women Still Can't Get One.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Supreme Court's decision set a legal precedent for the nation. But applying it to all of Mexico's states will be a long path, and women are still facing prosecution. MEXICO CITY - When the Supreme Court in Mexico issued a historic decision on Tuesday declaring that having an abortion was not a crime, activists across the country celebrated.

# data[].attributes.headline
Supreme court of Mexico has ruled to decriminalize abortion

# data[].attributes.subject
Supreme court of Mexico has ruled to decriminalize abortion

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Supreme Court in Mexico has voted to decriminalize abortion, despite the country's pro-life history.

Abortion is already legal up to 12 weeks in Mexico City, as well as in the states of Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Veracruz, but has been banned elsewhere. Despite the SCJN ruling, legislation to fully legalize abortion was abandoned earlier this year, with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador refusing to allow the pro-abortion legislation receive a full vote in the legislature.

"When there are highly controversial confrontational issues, points of view, the best thing is to consult the citizens," he said at the time, adding that he recommends Mexican lawmakers let "citizens be consulted on controversial issues, where there are substantive differences. Consultation and that the people decide, let the people decide."

Pro-life groups had been demonstrating and praying outside of the Supreme Court, urging the justices to choose life, and not death. "We're urging the Supreme Court justices to reject these (challenges to states' efforts to limit abortions)... we trust that these justices are going to defend life," Leticia Gonzalez-Luna, president of the pro-life group Voz Publica A.C., told La Prensa Latina.

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) was asked to rule on a law in the state of Coahuila, which states that a woman can be sent to prison for three years if she undergoes an abortion. The SCJN ruled that this violated the constitution, and therefore, can be applied to the entire country if eight of the 11 justices vote to uphold the challenge.

According to Live Action, many expect the ruling to lead to outright legalization of abortion in the near future. In the meantime, women who have been jailed for abortions will be set free. "Today is a historic day for the rights of all Mexican women," Chief Justice Arturo Zaldivar said in a statement after the ruling.

Abortion advocates, who have frequently protested violently in Mexico, are celebrating

the ruling, and are continuing to urge lawmakers in Latin and South America to abandon their pro-life constituents. "This will not only have an impact in Mexico; it will set the agenda for the entire Latin American region," Melissa Ayala, coordinator of litigation for the Mexican feminist organization GIRE told the Washington Post, adding that the ruling is "a historic moment for feminists and activists."

ARTICLE: TAMMY FISHBACK

MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE
PHOTO CREDITS: NEW YORK TIMES

The following two tabs change content below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mexico's Supreme Court votes to decriminalize abortion, despite country's pro-life history

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Supreme Court in Mexico has voted to decriminalize abortion, despite the country's pro-life history. Abortion is already legal up to 12 weeks in Mexico City, as well as in the states of Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Veracruz, but has been banned elsewhere. Despite the SCJN ruling, legislation to fully legalize abortion was abandoned earlier this...