Mexico City – The Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico ruled yesterday to decriminalize abortion at the national level, which guarantees all women the possibility of being able to access a voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVE), without being criminalized nor the professionals of the health that carry out this practice.
After the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) approved an appeal filed by the Mexican feminist organization Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE) to “eliminate the crime of abortion” from the Federal Penal Code (CPF). , “all women and people with the capacity to gestate will be able to access abortion services at any federal health institution.”
The Minister of the Court, Margarita Ríos Farjat, was the one who took the GIRE appeal and prepared the opinion that was unanimously approved and that will allow articles 330, 331, 332, 333 and 334 of the CPF to be repealed, which penalize with prison women who abort in the country.
Until today, the aforementioned articles imposed a prison sentence, from six months to five years, on the woman or person with the capacity to gestate who voluntarily decided to interrupt her pregnancy; Similarly, the disqualification of two to five years for health personnel and midwives, indicated the local newspaper Milenio.
As these are criminal regulations, the sentence will have retroactive effects for the benefit of those prosecuted or sentenced for this crime.
A statement released by the NGO that works on reproductive rights explained that, based on the ruling on the unconstitutionality of the crime of abortion in the Criminal Code of the State of Coahuila, which was resolved unanimously by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation In September 2021, GIRE filed an amparo against the Union Congress and the Federal Executive for having issued a regulation that criminalizes abortion. Congress has a deadline of December 15 to make it effective.
Thus, the Court analyzed this amparo and concluded that the section of the Federal Penal Code that criminalizes abortion will no longer have effect and, therefore, neither health personnel nor pregnant persons “can be criminalized for helping someone to abort or for whom do,” the ruling says.
In addition, Congress must “eliminate the crime of abortion” from the Federal Criminal Code and, having been unanimously approved, “this sentence becomes mandatory for all local and federal judges, who will have to implement what the Court has said” .
“It was established that the absolute criminalization of abortion is unconstitutional. This is considered mandatory for judges, so it would mean that throughout the country, when a case of criminalization for abortion comes to them, they could no longer establish a conviction, that is, a prison sentence, allowing no more women to be imprisoned. for abortion”, explained Isabel Fulda, the deputy director of GIRE.
With this resolution, the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), Institute of Security and Social Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) and any federal health institution must provide abortion services to all women and people with the capacity to gestate. that request it.
Until this Wednesday, abortion was decriminalized in 12 of the 32 states of the country.
“More than 70% of the population accesses health services through these federal institutions and these have historically not provided abortion services, so this opens the door in a very important way to access to services throughout the country,” he added. Fulda.
The first law decriminalizing abortion in the country was approved by Mexico City in 2007, followed by Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Coahuila, Veracruz, Baja California, Colima, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Baja California Sur, Quintana Roo and aguascalientes.
Source: Ambito
