Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion in Mexico

Mexico’s top court has decriminalized abortion across all of its 32 states, tossing all federal criminal penalties that apply while ruling that the denial of such a procedure is unconstitutional and a violation of women’s rights. It will now be a requirement for the nation’s public health service and all federal institutions to offer abortion to those who ask for it. “In cases of rape, no girl can be forced to become a mother—neither by the state nor by her parents nor her guardians,” Arturo Zaldívar, the head of the country’s Supreme Court, said in the judgement. In 2007, Mexico City became the first state to decriminalize the procedures. Another dozen then followed, but progress has been slow in the remaining areas.