The State of Guerrero has decriminalized abortion up to the 12th week for those who practice it with consent and without term for the pregnant woman.
“Voluntary abortion is decriminalized for the woman who self-procures an abortion or consents to someone else making her abort, without a limit of weeks.
For those who help her to abort, the scheme of 12 weeks and grounds is maintained.
With the decision of this Tuesday, the entity becomes the seventh in the country to decriminalize the voluntary interruption of pregnancy through the legislative route and the eighth if it is counted that the State of Coahuila carried it out through the judicial route, after a judgment of the Supreme Court.
With 30 votes in favor, 13 against, one abstention and one null vote, the local Congress has given way to the reform of six articles of the Penal Code (from 154 to 159) and has repealed 158, which punished with penalties of one three years in prison for abortions that occur outside the grounds of rape, health risk, induced abortion or non-consensual artificial insemination.
The news has been received with great emotion by feminist groups on the outskirts of Congress in Chilpancingo, the state capital, who have erupted in cheers and applause upon learning of the legislators' decision.
"Finally, abortion is decriminalized and women who terminate pregnancy are not attacked, even beyond 12 weeks they can abort without being criminalized," celebrates Rebeca Ramos, director of the Information Group on Elected Reproduction (GIRE), an organization in favor of the sexual and reproductive rights of women in Mexico.
The feminists of Guerrero had been trying to place abortion reform in the legislative debate for 15 years, but their discussion had been postponed on numerous occasions.
Last week, without going any further, the necessary quorum was not reached for the vote for the boycott of the most conservative deputies in the chamber to take place.
After reaching a majority in Congress during the last elections, Morena, the ruling party and promoter of the measure, has obtained the necessary votes to carry out the reform.
“Let's improve the living conditions of women, let's not punish them for the poverty and violence they have lived through for decades.
She invited them to discuss this opinion freely, with the responsibility of a secular State;
for the life of women, for their freedom and for their rights”,
Guerrero is one of the states most affected by violence in the country and with one of the highest rates of poverty and inequality, where it is very difficult to access health services.
It is also one of the entities with the highest number of child pregnancies and with the highest number of maternal deaths, in which a high percentage has to do with abortions that are performed in an unsafe manner.
To the above, we must add high rates of sexist and femicide violence, with two alerts declared for gender violence.
“This fight has been won by the women of Guerrero so that the lives of women and girls are protected.
Many of them are raped and forced to continue their pregnancy," Mojica said in an interview with
Milenio .
.
The decision is a very important step for the conquest of the sexual and reproductive rights of women in Mexico, at the height of the decriminalization that already took place in Mexico City in 2007, in Oaxaca in 2019 or in Veracruz in 2021. There have been women imprisoned in the State for spontaneous abortions, that is why it was important to guarantee the poorest access to a free, safe and free abortion”, added the deputy from Morena.
The decision, without precedent in the country, follows the guideline of the ruling in favor of the decriminalization of abortion throughout the country that the Supreme Court ordered in September 2021 by which no woman can be imprisoned in Mexico for having an abortion and that requires States with the most restrictive legislation to modify their criminal codes to eliminate the crime of abortion.
In the region, Argentina, Chile and Colombia have managed to take steps forward in access to voluntary interruption of pregnancy and have set the tone for the Green Tide in the continent, while it continues as a shock wave.
The Argentine Congress decriminalized abortion until week 14, just like Chile;
while the Supreme Court in Colombia regulated it until week 24. As the south legislates in favor of women's rights, some northern countries have become more restrictive, as is the case with the United States or Poland.
The Supreme Court of the neighboring country intends to annul the
Roe v. Wade ruling
,
which allowed abortion in the country, unleashing great controversy at the national level.
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