The State of Mexico, the most populous in the country, decriminalized this Monday voluntary abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation, becoming the 18th entity to do so, although still lagging behind the recent debate in Mexico City about eliminating the limit of time to abort.
With 55 votes in favor, 7 against, and 4 abstentions, the local Congress approved the opinion to reform article 248 of the state Penal Code to allow the free interruption of pregnancy in the first 12 weeks of gestation.
Articles 249 and 250 of the same ordinance were also repealed, and the wording of article 251 was adjusted to guarantee that the State provides this service in a free, safe, informed and without discrimination manner.
In addition, a commitment was established to offer sexual education to women, men, girls, boys and adolescents, as well as to facilitate access to effective contraceptive methods.
Read: Archdiocese of Mexico classified the decriminalization of abortion in CDMX as an ‘unnecessary proposal’
When presenting the initiative, endorsed on November 20 by the Gender Equality Commission of the local Congress, representative Anais Burgos pointed out that more than 63,000 Mexican women have resorted to the medical services of Mexico City to have an abortion.
For this reason, Burgos, from Morena, highlighted that the reform is “avant-garde” compared to the rest of the entities that only focus on criminal matters, since it includes reforms in administrative and health matters.
The initiative also reforms article 5 of the local Constitution so that citizens make free and responsible decisions, without violence or discrimination, regarding their body and sexual and reproductive health, said deputy Juana Bonilla, from Movimiento Ciudadano.
With the State of Mexico, 18 of the 32 entities in the country have decriminalized abortion as a voluntary decision before week 12 (and in Sinaloa, 13), in line with the Court’s ruling that in 2021 determined that prohibiting the interruption of Pregnancy violates the rights to human dignity, reproductive autonomy, health and equality, among others.
Read: Michoacán approves the decriminalization of abortion
Mexico City was the first entity in the country to decriminalize, in 2007, abortion up to the 12th week of gestation, although recently the Congress of the capital put on the table the elimination of the deadline for abortion, which contributes to criminalization and stigma and affects the most vulnerable.
As of 2019, the capital decision was adopted by the states of Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Colima, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Quintana Roo, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Puebla, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, and most recently, last week, Chiapas.
Furthermore, in the states of Nayarit and Yucatán it has been decriminalized through judicial means, after the courts ordered Congress to eliminate the crime of abortion from the local Penal Code, without this happening yet.
Added to the 2021 ruling, in September 2023, the Supreme Court issued another ruling for federal health institutions to guarantee the right to safe abortion, and for the federal Congress to reform the Penal Code to eliminate the crime of abortion, which It hasn’t happened.
With information from EFE
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