Mexico's top court ordered that the crime of abortion be removed from the federal penal code. The decision in the Catholic-majority country comes amid a trend in Latin America of loosening restrictions on abortion.Abortion is not a crime, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

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The court said the section of the federal penal code that criminalized abortion would no longer have any effect, the Information Group for Chosen Reproduction (GIRE) said.

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The nongovernmental organization said in a statement: "No woman or pregnant person, nor any health worker will be able to be punished for abortion."

This also means abortion is legal and federal public health service and federal health institutions must offer their services to anyone who requests the procedure, GIRE said.

Court ruling comes years after fight for abortion rights

The Supreme Court ruling came two years after it ruled that criminalizing abortion was unconstitutional in one northern state. That ruling set off a process of decriminalizing abortion state by state in the Catholic-majority country.

The move to decriminalize abortion in Mexico began in 2007, when Mexico City passed the country’s first abortion decriminalization law. It took 12 years for a second state, Oaxaca, to follow, according to Human Rights Watch.

Last week, the central state of Aguascalientes became the 12th of Mexico's 32 states to decriminalize the procedure. Judges in states that still criminalize abortion must now take account of the top court's ruling.

Women and civil society groups have largely written the success story for the fight for abortion rights in the Latin American country, whether by taking to the streets or challenging authorities in courtrooms.

Other countries in the region have also moved recently to lift abortion restrictions.

Argentina legalized the procedure in 2020, followed by Colombia in 2022.

Fight for abortion access in the US

In neighboring United States, however, the fight over abortion access has picked up ever since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

The decision removed nearly 50 years of federal protection for abortions, giving every state the right to make their own laws governing access to the procedure within their own jurisdiction.

rm/nm (Reuters, AP)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 07, 2023 03:40 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).