Last week, on Sept. 6, Mexico’s Supreme Court made the decision to decriminalize abortion nationwide. Mexico and many other countries in Latin America have been working toward making reproductive healthcare more accessible, while it looks to me as though the United States is moving backwards. This amazing milestone for women’s rights in Mexico, while great news, shows stark contrast to the decline of women’s reproductive rights in the United States.
Over the last few years, a significant amount of progress was made with reproductive rights access in Mexico. In 2021, the Supreme Court deemed the criminalizing of abortion as unconstitutional, but only in the state of Coahuila. Currently, criminal penalties have been eliminated for abortion in 12 of Mexico’s states. Progress is being made every day, with the most recently decriminalized state, Aguascalientes, eliminating penalties only two weeks ago.
The decriminalization in Mexico last week came from its Supreme Court striking down the “federal penal code that criminalized abortion.” It deemed the code unconstitutional, which created access to the procedure “in all federal health institutions across the country” and “ruled against bans on medical providers.” While this gives everyone access to abortions if they were to go to these specific health institutions, it is still not available everywhere. This ruling makes no difference for local laws and abortion will still be illegal in 20 of Mexico’s 32 states. However, citizens in these states are legally allowed to get abortions at federal health institutions. Additionally, “about 70% of Mexico’s population is subscribed to the federal health system,” so this ruling is critical to the progress of accessible abortions. Essentially, this is an extremely important change that will provide reproductive health access to so many more women in Mexico.
Mexico’s Supreme Court gave a statement saying that the “criminalization of abortion constitutes an act of gender-based violence and discrimination.” The court stated that criminalizing abortions “perpetuates the stereotype that women and people with the capacity to get pregnant can only freely exercise their sexuality to procreate and reinforces the gender role that imposes motherhood as a compulsory destiny.” This statement sums up perfectly how harmful abortion bans are to societal views of women.
Many would consider the advancement of abortion accessibility in Mexico to be somewhat surprising. It is generally agreed upon that “Mexico has deeply rooted traditional ideals,” and abortion access and female reproductive rights are typically considered against those. Furthermore, Mexico is a very religious country. Even though it is technically secular, about 78% of its population identifies as Roman Catholic, according to a 2020 government census, and “the Church wields tremendous popular and political power.” Nevertheless, over the last few years, the laws of Mexico have drifted away from primarily focusing on adhering to these religious and traditional beliefs and are moving “more in line with global reproductive-rights trends.”
This decision is a direct result of “decades of feminist activism” as well as the work of many reproductive rights groups that “fought to have abortion cases heard by the Supreme Court.” Specifically, the abortion rights group GIRE “filed an injunction last year against the Mexican regulation from 1931 that criminalized the procedure.” The feminists and rights groups helped encourage Mexico’s society to change its view towards women and urged its government to support women’s reproductive rights.
The progress that has been made by Mexico and other Latin American countries such as Columbia, Argentina, Uruguay, and Guyana, is consistent with many other countries that are working towards making reproductive health more accessible. “More than 60 countries have liberalized abortion laws in the last 30 years.” However, the United States is one of only four countries that has now started to limit access to abortion. States across the country have imposed a variety of abortion bans and restrictions after the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year. “Twenty-two states now ban abortion or restrict the procedure earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe v. Wade.” In fifteen states, abortion is banned in almost all circumstances.
This landmark decision conveys how much Mexico’s society and government has evolved. Furthermore, it shows how so many other countries are progressing, while the United States is regressing in the upholding of women’s rights. It is unfortunate that the U.S., once idealized as one of the most progressive and free countries in the world, is now becoming one of the most restrictive for women.