In this file photo taken on September 28, 2020, supporters of the legalization of abortion take part in a demonstration on International Safe Abortion Day, in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Mexico's Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a state law defining life as beginning at conception and equating abortion with murder was unconstitutional in another victory for abortion rights campaigners.
The unanimous decision by the top court concerns the penal code of the northern state of Sinaloa, but will also affect other states with similar laws.
After Mexico City decriminalized abortion in the first 12 weeks in 2007, at least 10 of the country's 32 states passed laws obliging the authorities to protect life from the moment of conception.
The legislation meant that abortion was equated with infanticide, according to experts.
Mexico has a federated system in which the states establish their own laws, but they can be overridden by Supreme Court rulings that establish jurisprudence.
Up to now, abortion has been legal in four states including Mexico City in the first 12 weeks, while elsewhere, it was permitted in cases of rape. »