Mexico’s supreme court has unanimously ruled that state laws prohibiting abortion are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights, in the latest in a series of victories for reproductive rights activists across Latin America.
Mexico’s two congressional chambers will now need to come together to pass an accompanying law, eliminating abortion from the country’s penal code.
However, Wednesday’s ruling will protect both women seeking abortions and healthcare workers involved in providing abortion care from criminal charges.
Anyone with a uterus should also now be able to access abortions in federal health facilities across the country.
“No woman or pregnant person, nor any health worker, willbe punished for abortion,” GIRE said in a statement.
It also prompted a rise in abortion tourism, both to other US states where the procedure is still legal, and to Mexico.
This past year, several women held a banner asking the government for legal abortion access. »
