Abortion is now decriminalized in 12 Mexican states

Mexico’s Supreme Court said this week that it had decriminalized abortion in the central state of Aguascalientes, making it the twelfth Mexican state to revoke criminal penalties for the procedure.

The court said the former law had criminalized health workers and “totally suppressed the constitutional right of women and people with the capacity to bear children to choose, and therefore their right to health, equality and non-discrimination.”

It also violated the right to health of victims of rape, by imposing “requirements which hinder and delay access to health services which, in such cases, should be guaranteed promptly and urgently,” the court said.