Decriminalization of abortion in Mexico spurs international calls for stronger reforms

Daniela Pulido | Facultad de Derecho PUCP, PE
November 30, 2024

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday called on Mexican authorities to strengthen abortion access and eliminate remaining criminal code barriers after the Congress of the State of Mexico voted to decriminalize abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

HRW emphasized that while the State of Mexico’s reform marks substantial progress, implementation remains crucial. The organization advocated for comprehensive service delivery and the complete removal of remaining legal barriers that might discourage healthcare providers or patients.

Continued: https://www.jurist.org/news/2024/11/decriminalization-of-abortion-in-mexico-spurs-international-calls-for-stronger-reforms/

30.11.2024

News

abortion law reform

Congress of the State of Mexico

decriminalization of abortion

State of Mexico Congress Votes to Decriminalize Abortion

Authorities Should Ensure Access to Care, Wide Dissemination of Legal Protections

Nov 28, 2024
Human Rights Watch

(Toluca) – The vote by the Congress of the State of Mexico on November 25, 2024, to decriminalize abortion in all cases during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy is a significant step forward for reproductive rights in the country’s most populous state, Human Rights Watch said today.

Once enacted, the reform will remove all criminal penalties for abortion within the first trimester. It will align the State of Mexico with 18 other states in the country that have already decriminalized abortion following the landmark 2021 ruling by Mexico’s Supreme Court, which found the absolute criminalization of abortion unconstitutional.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/28/state-mexico-congress-votes-decriminalize-abortion

28.11.2024

News

Congress of the State of Mexico

Cristina Quijano Carrasco

decriminalization of abortion

Mexico / Malta – These two women are making abortions possible for those whose governments won’t allow it

“Our aim is to guarantee free and safe legal abortions to rape survivors”

September 27, 2024

Verónica Cruz Sánchez, for Amnesty International

Years ago in Guanajuato and throughout Mexico, abortion for survivors of rape wasn’t available. While it was technically legal, our government did not provide the services women and girls needed.

We created our feminist organization Las Libres (the Free Ones) in 2000 because we wanted to promote women’s rights and be there for those who had been raped. It seemed completely inhuman to think that these girls would have to bring these pregnancies to term. We wanted to make sure their rights were upheld, so we formed a network of gynaecologists, along with psychologists and lawyers to help guarantee the right to free and safe abortion. We also wanted to support girls and women who wanted to terminate unwanted pregnancies at home without medical supervision by accessing abortion pills for free.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2024/09/these-two-women-are-making-abortions-possible-for-those-whose-governments-wont-allow-it/

27.09.2024

Commentary

abortion decriminalization

Amnesty International

Isabel Stabile

Las Libres

Verónica Cruz Sánchez

Mexico: Inadequate Abortion Access in State of Mexico Violates Human Rights

State Government Should Fully Decriminalize Abortion
August 13, 2024
Human Rights Watch

(Mexico City) – Authorities and healthcare providers in the state of Mexico, the nation's most populous state, are failing to guarantee access to abortion care, even in cases in which it is permitted under state law, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Despite nationwide strides towards recognizing access to abortion as a constitutional and human right, the state of Mexico continues to criminalize abortion, allowing exceptions only in cases of rape, “negligent abortions,” risk to the pregnant woman’s life, or when the fetus has “serious congenital or genetic alterations.”

The 44-page report, “Navigating Obstacles: Abortion Access in the State of Mexico,” found that the state’s abortion law does not guarantee access to this essential service, even for legally eligible cases. Barriers to access include healthcare providers denying or delaying services, withholding necessary information, questioning the veracity of sexual violence survivors' statements, subjecting women to mistreatment, and imposing arbitrary requirements for access that contradict existing law and regulations.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/08/13/mexico-inadequate-abortion-access-state-mexico-violates-human-rights

Meet the Mexican women smuggling abortion pills into the US

The right to abortion is becoming one of the defining issues of the upcoming US presidential election. With abortion banned in 14 US states, activists from neighbouring Mexico have mobilised to distribute abortion pills to American women.

4 August 2024
By Sara Tomevska

At the highly policed border crossing between Mexico and California, an organised drug smuggling operation is underway.

The drug in question? Abortion pills.

Mexican activist Crystal waits up to four hours a day to bring the pills across the border, where they're mailed to thousands of American women in states where abortion – once a constitutional right – is now a crime.

Continued: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dateline/article/meet-the-mexican-women-smuggling-abortion-pills-into-the-us/hqpnakc6a

04.08.2024

Commentary

abortion pills from Mexico

Las Libres

Mark Lee Dickson

Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn

self-managed abortion

Puebla becomes the 14th Mexican state to decriminalize abortion

MND Staff
July 16, 2024

Puebla has become the 14th state in Mexico to decriminalize abortion.

Despite the efforts of far-right groups to disrupt Monday’s session of the Puebla state Congress, the legislative body voted 29-7, with four abstentions, to allow abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion hasn’t been a federal crime in Mexico since a 2021 ruling by the Supreme Court struck down a law criminalizing abortion in the northern state of Coahuila.

Continued: https://mexiconewsdaily.com/politics/puebla-decriminalize-abortion/

17.07.2024

News

abortion law reform

decriminalization of abortion

Monica Silva

Puebla State Congress

Mexico’s abortion activists pivot to help Americans as they struggle with the post-Roe reality

Mexicans once envied the reproductive freedoms available in the United States. Now, they’re shipping pills across the border and fielding desperate questions from states where abortion is effectively banned

JANICE DICKSON, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS REPORTER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY VERÓNICA GABRIELA CÁRDENAS
June 26, 2024

Vanessa Jiménez Rubalcava could spend all day responding to text messages. They come in at all hours, a torrent of questions from Americans translated into Spanish. The women and girls on the other end are all looking for the same thing: abortion pills.

On a quiet street in Monterrey, a sprawling city in northern Mexico, getting help from Ms. Jiménez Rubalcava and her wife, Sandra Cardona Alanís, is the only option for many women living north of the border who are desperate to terminate unwanted pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/us-politics/article-mexicos-abortion-activists-pivot-to-help-americans-as-they-struggle/

Mexico’s first female president offers little on women’s rights

Diana Baptista
June 3, 2024

MEXICO CITY- Claudia Sheinbaum has made history as the first woman to be elected president of Mexico, but activists fear her win could be largely symbolic after a campaign short on promises to tackle high rates of domestic violence and unequal abortion access.

"Being a woman does not necessarily embody progressiveness in the women's rights' agenda," said Friné Salguero, director at the Simone de Beauvoir Leadership Institute, a feminist civil society group based in Mexico City.

Continued: https://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/mexicos-first-female-president-offers-little-on-womens-rights

03.06.2024

News

Andrés Manuel López Obrador

gender-based violence

Jorge Álvarez Máynez

Simone de Beauvoir Leadership Institute

A woman might win the presidency of Mexico. What could that mean for abortion rights?

Neither of the two leading candidates has shared specific proposals on abortion. Both have suggested equality and protection measures for women amid a wave of violence and femicide.

By María Teresa Hernández | The Associated Press
Published April 27, 2024

If a woman wins Mexico’s presidency on June 2, would she rule with gender in mind? The question has been raised by academics, humans rights organizations and activists ahead of the voting that will likely elect Mexico’s first female president for the term 2024-2030.

Out of three candidates, the frontrunner is Claudia Sheinbaum, who has promised to keep President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's legacy on track. Next comes Xóchitl Gálvez, representing several opposition parties, one of which is historically conservative.

Continued: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/a-woman-might-win-the-presidency-of-mexico-what-could-that-mean-for-abortion-rights/3399038/

The Mexican state closest to Arizona bans most abortions, setting up a regional void

Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled last week that an 1864 law banning most abortions from the moment of conception could be enforced, sending the state into chaos.

April 16, 2024
By Isabela Espadas Barros Leal and Albinson Linares

Though American and Mexican women have long relied on one another for abortion care, the impending restrictions in Arizona are set to create a regional lack of access that spans into the neighboring Mexican state of Sonora — where abortion is also banned with minimal exceptions.

Such stringent abortion restrictions have left organizers scrambling to support women seeking care on both sides of the border. “Because we are on the border with the United States, what happens there affects us,” Leticia Burgos Ochoa, an abortion rights activist and former Mexican senator based in Sonora, told NBC News.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexican-state-sonora-closest-arizona-bans-abortions-creating-regional-rcna148060