Mexico on the Rights Path

Crerdit: Silvana Flores/AFP via Getty ImagesBy Inés M. PousadelaMONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Oct 10 2023 (IPS) Mexico’s Supreme Court recently declared abortion bans unconstitutional, effectively decriminalising abortion throughout the vast federal country, so far characterised by a legislative patchwork. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by a civil society organisation, Information Group on Reproductive Choice. It forces the Federal Congress to repeal the Federal Penal Code articles that criminalise abortion. Effective immediately, those seeking abortions and those providing them can no longer be punished for doing so. The ruling also enshrines the right to access abortion procedures in all institutions of the federal health system network, even in states where the crime of abortion remains on the books. Global trends Mexico is part of a global, long-term trend of progress in sexual and reproductive rights. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, the vast majority of countries that have changed their national abortion laws over the past couple of decades have made them less restrictive. Only four countries have gone the other way: El Salvador, Nicaragua, Poland and the USA. Several Latin American countries have been swept by the ‘green tide’ that originated in Argentina, increasingly liberalising abortion laws. Before the 2010s, abortion was legal in only one Latin American country, Cuba. It was legalised in Uruguay in 2012, and eight years later in Arge...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Civil Society Featured Gender Headlines Health Human Rights Latin America & the Caribbean TerraViva United Nations Women's Health CIVICUS 2023 IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news