Mexico: Criminalizing Abortion Unconstitutional, Supreme Court Says

Mexico's Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the criminalization of abortion, in a unanimous vote Tuesday.

This unanimous vote paves the way for access to abortion for women across the country.

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"This is one more step in the historic struggle for (women's) equality, dignity and the full exercise of their rights,"

declared the President of the Court, Arturo Zaldivar.

, underlined Arturo Zaldívar. The court met in plenary session for two days to consider the constitutionality of articles of the penal code of the state of Coahuila, in northern Mexico, which punish women who have abortions, with penalties of up to to three years in prison.

These articles were unanimously declared unconstitutional by the ten judges present, which establishes a case law for the courts in the country. A judicial source explained that this judgment has indeed a national scope because it will allow women who live in states where abortion is criminalized to have access to abortion by decision of a judge.

Alex Alí Méndez, constitutional lawyer and expert in abortion issues

told AFP.

A third consequence of the Supreme Court ruling, the lawyer added, is that it will be a tool for women imprisoned for having abortions to regain their freedom. Mexico is a federated country where the states are autonomous in the adoption of their laws, but these can be invalidated by means of an appeal when they contravene decisions of the Supreme Court which make jurisprudence, such as this one. Tuesday. Mexico City decriminalized abortion up to 12 weeks gestation in 2007 and it is performed free of charge in city hall clinics, whether or not women live in other neighborhoods. Oaxaca, Veracruz and Hidalgo are other states that have decriminalized abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.