Mexico Supreme Court rejects state's bid to decriminalise abortion

29 July 2020

Mexico's Supreme Court has rejected a landmark injunction on abortion rights across the country.

The case revolved around an injunction granted in the eastern state of Veracruz, which would have effectively decriminalised termination in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Campaigners hoped the ruling would set a precedent for similar injunctions in other states.

Abortion is legal in just two of Mexico's 32 states.

In an article last week, reproductive rights organisation GIRE said they hoped the court's decision would be a "historic opportunity" for pro-choice campaigners.

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Mexico: women’s groups dismayed after judges dodge abortion decision

• Supreme court votes against proposal on technical grounds
• Plan could have opened path towards decriminalization

David Agren in Mexico City
@el_reportero
Published on Thu 30 Jul 2020 18.36 BST

Mexican women’s groups have expressed deep disappointment after the supreme court dodged a ruling on a proposal which could have opened a legal path towards decriminalizing abortion.

In a 4-1 decision, the court voted on Wednesday against the proposal for technical reasons – without addressing arguments that restrictions on abortion violated women’s rights and contravened international treaties to which Mexico is a signatory.

“They didn’t even need 20 fucking minutes to shoot down a rare opportunity,” tweeted Las Brujas del Mar, a feminist collective in Veracruz state.

“The aggravation isn’t because we failed to understand that what was discussed yesterday was a ‘problem of form and not of substance’,” the collective continued. “The problem is that the substance was not discussed, and the form still matters more than women’s lives.”

The case centred on a court injunction in Veracruz, which ordered the legislature to rewrite its laws to remove penalties for abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

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