'We have made history': Mexico's Oaxaca state decriminalises abortion

Lawmakers voted to scrap restrictions on abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in a win for reproductive rights advocates

David Agren
@el_reportero
Thu 26 Sep 2019 21.52 BST
Last modified on Fri 27 Sep 2019 12.37 BST

Women’s rights activists in Mexico are celebrating after the southern state of Oaxaca decriminalised abortion in a move that they hope signals broader reforms to ensure reproductive rights in what is still a conservative and deeply Catholic country.

Lawmakers voted 24-10 on Wednesday to scrap restrictions on abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, despite vocal opposition from the Catholic church. Opponents – including priests and the religious – screamed “killers!” at the lawmakers as the vote occurred, while women in the green handkerchiefs of the pro-choice movement chanted, “Yes we can!”

“We have made history for the dignity, rights and life of the women of Oaxaca,” said Magaly López a local representative of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party.

Magaly López told reporters that illegal abortions are the third-largest cause of maternal deaths in the state. “The women who die are poor, and cannot pay for (abortions) … They are judged and sentenced to death by a system which believes it is dangerous for them to make decisions about their body,” she said.

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