The two judgments, which cover more than a decade of the first in this case, are a mandate for all judges in the country to take into account the criteria set by the Court when deciding on cases of voluntary abortion. The concept of “conscientious objection” under the General Health Act is sometimes used by health workers to refuse to provide abortion services on ethical or religious grounds. Young women accompanying abortions in Coahuila are on average between 25 and 30 years old. Mix, 25, knew she could accompany other women who choose to have an abortion when she met a feminist activist in Monterrey in 2018. She came to herself and feminism through her therapist, who told her about this topic and introduced her to the royal activist. After this meeting, he began to look for more information. He intervened. And soon he made his first accompaniments. The decision came after a complaint was filed against the Coahuila Penal Code, filed by the government of former President Enrique Peña Nieto, which punished with one to three years in prison the woman who “voluntarily performs her abortion, or the person who had her aborted with consent.” In their decision on Tuesday, Supreme Court ministers declared the total criminalization of abortion unconstitutional and declared invalid Article 196 of coahuila`s Penal Code, which provided for a sentence of up to three years in prison for a woman who voluntarily performed her abortion. “I didn`t know I had that name until I saw on social media all the information about legal, safe and free abortion, the September 28 campaign.
I`m starting to discover that it has a name that feminist groups form others,” says the young woman, who lives in Piedras Negras, near the border between Mexico and the United States. León himself provides accompaniment on a voluntary basis. “Conscientious objection is not an obstacle to the legal termination of pregnancy, but ignorance of the issue means that conscientious objectors themselves do not know their rights and obligations,” the activist told Expansión Política. Minister Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena`s draft reaffirms that the right to life must also be understood as the right to decide freely and competently on the distance between daughters and sons provided for in article 4 of the Federal Constitution, which means that women and persons with the capacity to conceive have the right to reproductive autonomy. including abortion. In the United States, the Supreme Court ruled on June 24 to eliminate the right to abortion by repealing Roe v. Wade. Wade, Mexico, this right for women has evolved in recent years.
Mexico City, Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Baja California, Colima and Sinaloa are the states in Mexico where women can have an abortion simply because they want to. The Safe Abortion Network conducted 385 escorts in Coahuila in 2021. Women aged 18 to 20 ranked first in the cases treated; 66.7% of the accompaniments combined face-to-face and virtual formats, as the network itself reports through a facebook post. The court`s decision will require judges across the country, both federal and local, to comply with the order. That is, in future cases, judicial service providers should take into account that state criminal norms that absolutely criminalize abortion are unconstitutional. The same rule will apply to the Congress of the Union: federal lawmakers now have criteria approved by the SCJN to absolutely decriminalize abortion, but this does not require them to reform the penal code. “To make the state and the health system understand that they are important and necessary in this process. Without the companions in these processes, instead of eliminating stigma, they continue to experience institutional violence until the power that the health system has in our bodies and abortion are not seen for what they are, a liberating and autonomous process. “Legal abortion using the method with medication for provincial patients has a final all-inclusive price of $2,500. MolRe also points out that it is possible to see abortion in three ways: “As a crime, as a right, but what we don`t see is that it is a fact in reproductive life in people with the ability to get pregnant, it`s going to happen.” The Supreme Court`s decision does not mean that abortion is allowed nationwide, but that it will not be punished. Read also: Abortion rights: Mexican activists help Texas women with information and pills In fact, the government in Veracruz — where abortion was decriminalized this year — also announced measures based on the court`s decision. President Cuitláhuac García Jiménez said he would order the release of Diana Patricia, 28, who is in prison for a spontaneous abortion caused by violence she suffered at the hands of her partner.
©After the country`s Supreme Court (SCJN) declared the crime of abortion in Coahuila unconstitutional, the state government, led by Miguel Riquelme, said©in a statement that local legislation would be aligned with the criteria of the highest court not to criminalize a woman for abortion. In the state of Coahuila, four legislative initiatives to decriminalize abortion have been introduced. The first, dating from 2013, was never voted on; the 2017 was abandoned under pressure from conservative and religious groups; That of 2018 remains frozen. The most recent one was proposed in May 2020 and has not been decided. The third state where legal termination of pregnancy has been allowed is Hidalgo, another institution with high poverty rates, where 50% of the population suffers from some degree of poverty. According to Fernanda Díaz de León, coordinator of advocacy and access to the ipas community, the figure of conscientious objectors is “demonized” because, as she explains, they are not an obstacle to voluntary abortion and they are guarantors of the same decision-making rights. After more than eight votes in the SCJN, the decision became mandatory for all judges in Mexico, at the federal and local levels, so that no woman can be imprisoned for the crime of abortion that decriminalizes the termination of pregnancy. Since 2018, young women in particular have been organizing to form abortion support groups in different parts of Coahuila. The organization includes training on the procedure of termination of pregnancy with medication, knowledge of what sexual and reproductive rights mean, connection between collectives in different areas of Coahuila (sometimes outside), and also reflection on this work, often outside the state, to ensure that other women and pregnant women exercise their right of decision.
Although the paths that accompanied them are different, Mix, The Sisters of Ramos Arizpe, Blanca and León, know something: their work involves a certain secrecy and they run the risk of being criminalized; At the same time, they play a role that becomes more relevant when one thinks about unrestricted access to safe abortion and also about the ongoing discussions regarding implementation and public policy in places where abortion is already legal in Mexico. The criminalization of abortion is prohibited throughout Mexico and in seven states, it is legal and allows a woman to terminate her pregnancy without having to give a reason other than her own will. Recognition of a woman`s right to terminate her pregnancy was recognized in October 2021 by Baja California, a state bordering California. On September 7, 2021, the 11 ministers of the RCSC unanimously decided to decriminalize abortion throughout the country; That is, it is not a crime and it is forbidden to send to prison a woman who has decided to voluntarily terminate her pregnancy.
