Mexico Now Less Horrible About Abortion Than The US
Mexico Now Less Horrible About Abortion Than The US
The Mexican Supreme Court has decriminalized the medical procedure.
On Wednesday, the Mexican Supreme Court officially decriminalized abortion at the federal level, which is a pretty huge deal considering that the procedure was entirely illegal everywhere in the country up until it was legalized in Mexico City about 15 years ago.
To be clear, there’s still a way to go, as it is still technically illegal in 20 of the nation’s 32 states, but those who live in those states will be able to get abortions, legally, at federally funded medical institutions. About 33 percent of Mexico’s hospitals are public, which suggests that abortion is probably now about as accessible there as it was in the United States before Roe v Wade was overturned.
Via AP:
“Today is a day of victory and justice for Mexican women!” Mexico’s National Institute for Women wrote in a message on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The government organization called the decision a “big step” toward gender equality.
Sen. Olga Sánchez Cordero, a former Supreme Court justice, applauded the ruling, saying on X that it represented an advance toward “a more just society in which the rights of all are respected.” She called on Mexico’s Congress to pass legislation in response. […]
The court said on X that “the legal system that criminalized abortion” in Mexican federal law was unconstitutional because it “violates the human rights of women and people with the ability to gestate.”
Regardless of what the laws are in any given area, anyone who goes to a federal hospital and asks for an abortion is supposed to get one, because there is no Mexican Hyde Amendment.
That’s a big deal in a nation that is 72 percent Catholic. Or we’re at least supposed to pretend it is a big deal, because the Catholic Church itself is still so anti-abortion. In reality, aside from our own anecdotal evidence of who we drove to get abortions in high school, polls show that 64 percent of Catholics in the US believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, including 40 percent of Catholic Republicans. By contrast, only 25 percent of evangelical Protestants hold that same view.
The actual big deal here is what it is going to mean for Mexican women and others who can get pregnant to be able to control their reproductive futures. The obvious psychological and emotional benefits of that aside, there are the economic benefits of being able to properly plan for pregnancy and not being stuck in a relationship with someone due to being dependent on their income to take care of the child.
Mexico’s economic situation has greatly improved over the last few years, and this will likely accelerate that. Soon enough, we’re probably going to have a lot more Americans trying to cross the border at the South than the other way around.
This decision comes as part of an overall trend of expanding abortion rights and access in Latin America. In 2020, Argentina legalized the procedure, as did Colombia in 2022.
At the same time, half of Mexico’s Congress is female, as is its cabinet, and both leading political blocs just elected women to lead them, which means the next president of Mexico is likely to also be the nation’s first female president. In the US, our own Congress recently reached an all time high of 28 percent female and we will probably never have a female president until our nation’s beltway commentators are able to land upon a female voice they do not find “grating.”
Ta, Robyn. Glad I'm way too old for this shit, but I support women and girls no matter their age, socioeconomic status, religious affiliation if any, and political leanings.
With the creeping fascism and anti-abortion sentiment in the Texas legislature, I wouldn't be surprised to see Abbott trying to control travel in both directions, as least by women. As some prescient people suggested a few years ago, walls can keep people in as well as keep people out.