Unlike what happened throughout the country, in the Federal District at the time, led by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (once associated with the progressive left in the Mexican political spectrum), legal abortion was gradually liberalized. In the first place, also in 2000, the Robles law was adopted, so called because it was promoted by the head of government at the time, Rosario Robles Berlanga. The reform included new assumptions and reasons, as well as the definition that the Public Prosecutor`s Office would be responsible for approving the procedure if the pregnancy was the result of rape, thus dissolving the legal vacuum that had existed since 1931. Then, the PAN and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (with which it had formed an electoral alliance in the federal elections of the same year and with which it represented a third of the seats in the legislative assembly of the Federal District) jointly filed an unconstitutional lawsuit before the SCJN, which was decided a year later. Thus, in January 2002, the SCJN confirmed its constitutionality by a simple majority of 7 votes (including openly Catholic ministers like Mariano Azuela and despite the threat of excommunication). Only 6 ministers, for their part, were in favour of granting the Public Prosecutor`s Office and not the judge permission to abort in cases of sexual assault, so this part was also ratified in practical terms. From there, the SCJN began to develop as a reformist institution in favor of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the current general constitution. [179] [180] [181] [182] From a public health perspective, it has been observed that in countries where this is not legal, high-risk methods for women`s health are promoted. So it turns out that countries with restrictions on induced abortions have a high incidence of methods that are dangerous to women`s health, compared to countries without restrictions. [252] Of the 4.4 million abortions performed in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2008, 95% were classified as unsafe. Medical abortion, which is usually based on misoprostol, which is derived from a variety of sources, is becoming increasingly common throughout the region and has increased the security of secret procedures. The application of this method is particularly common in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and the Dominican Republic.
Women without resources or other disadvantages resort to unsafe methods and inadequately trained places or people. According to the World Health Organization, in 2008, 12% of all maternal deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean (1100 in total) were due to unsafe abortions. Nearly one million women in Latin America and the Caribbean are hospitalized each year for treatment for complications related to unsafe abortions. [250] [251] The green tide in Mexico is rising. More and more states are joining the decriminalization of abortion, also adhering to the rules established by the Supreme Court of the Nation (SCJN) in this case. Abortion in Mexico is both a right and a crime. Thus, abortion due to rape is guaranteed throughout the country by the official Mexican standard 046. But it is also regulated at the local level, where each state or entity determines under what circumstances or causes abortion is decriminalized and in which it is considered a crime and punished in accordance with its penal codes. Abortion in Mexico, which refers to induced abortion, is not punishable in the 32 states of the Mexican Republic, since its practice, as long as it is performed with the consent of the woman or pregnant person, was de facto decriminalized throughout the country on September 7, 2021, following a unanimous decision of the country`s Supreme Court (Unconstitutionality Lawsuit AI 148/2017). [5] [6] Thanks to the above, people imprisoned for the crime of elective abortion were able to leave prison, because in Mexico, jurisdiction can only be retroactive if it benefits human rights. For this reason, the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Segob), in coordination with the Judicial System Support Unit, the National Commission for the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women (Conavim) and the National Commission of the Superior Courts of Justice of the United Mexican States (CONATRIB), is conducting the necessary procedures for the release of convicted persons. [93] [94] [95] [96] Similarly, the amnesty laws that some entities have promulgated since the beginning of the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have been strengthened.
Some organizations have even enacted specific amnesty laws for women who have been re-victimized for gender-based violence. [97] According to a study entitled Panorama actual sobre el aborto en México, conducted by Irma Kánter Coronel and published in 2021 by the Belisario Domínguez Institute of the Mexican Senate; In the country, one million 26 thousand abortions are performed per year. About half of them were due to unwanted pregnancies. [249] So that you have no doubt, we also put at your disposal our office with experts to whom you can ask your question about legal abortion, the free choice of the ILE clinic, etc. In general, sanctions may include deprivation of liberty (from 2021, it can only be made effective for forced abortion), economic fines (assessed in VSM, before 2016, or UMA, after 2016) or alternative measures (full treatment in freedom, whether educational, health or psychological). Each code also determines which sanctions are valid in its territory and which are not. Similarly, everyone indicates the time that the convicted person must clean. [29] [30] [31] Voluntary abortion has been fully decriminalized since September 2021 due to a judgment of the SCJN (Measure of Unconstitutionality AI 148/2017). The local legislator has declared invalid only the corresponding articles of the Penal Code, but the time limits, judgments or reasons have not been changed.
That is, elective abortion is in a loophole. The entities shown below are displayed in chronological order. It will describe in a very general way the data and process of decriminalization and / or legalization, the context of the reforms, the associated changes and the current situation. Detailed and special information can be found in the recommended main articles. At present, few companies continue to consider mitigating factors for consensual abortions. Prior to 2021, they were used to shorten the length of time a person imposed a prison sentence, but almost all of them are based on gender stereotypes and prejudices and outdated. These can be honor clauses (contained in the Federal Penal Code and in various articles of 3 other local law books) or higher-level clauses (contained only in 2 local codes). In general, the first is not to have a “bad reputation”, not to hide the “shame”, not to hide the pregnancy or not to have done so outside of a “legitimate association”, cohabitation or fraternity outside marriage. During the latter, the father must have given his consent to the abortion or must live with the mother and fulfill the “obligations inherent in the association”. [34] [35] Later, in 2004 and again in the defunct Federal District, under the administration of the new head of government, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, changes were made to his health law that went almost unnoticed, but to date have had a significant impact on the decriminalization and legalization of elective abortion. On that occasion, it was noted that the public institutions of the institution would be obliged to continue the termination of pregnancy free of charge and under conditions of quality in the cases and causes permitted by its Penal Code.
A maximum waiting period has also been provided for the implementation of the procedure once the application has been submitted and the requirements have been met. In addition, it was considered that users should receive timely and truthful information about the options available to them, as well as the consequences for their health. Finally, conscientious objection was regulated in such a way that medical and nursing personnel who apologized for ideological or moral reasons did not intervene in such cases were obliged to refer patients to non-reprehensible staff.