Mexico Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion Nationwide

Mexico's top court ordered that the crime of abortion be removed from the federal penal code. The decision 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 portion 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 non-governmental organization said in a statement that "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 abortion, GIRE said.

The court's 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.

Last week, the central state of Aguascalientes became the 12th state to decriminalize the procedure.

Judges in states that still criminalize abortion must take account of the top court’s ruling. Mexico City was the first Mexican jurisdiction to decriminalize abortion in 2007.

More to come...

rm/nm (Reuters, AP)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 07, 2023 03:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).