Mexico’s Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion Nationwide

Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide on Wednesday in a sweeping decision that builds on an earlier ruling giving officials the authority to allow the procedure on a state-by-state basis.

The move by the court effectively makes abortion legally accessible in all of the country’s 32 states, up from just 12 states. The ruling in Mexico, a predominantly Catholic country of 130 million people, points to how nations in Latin America are taking a leading role in broadening reproductive rights.

In addition to Mexico, countries such as Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay and Guyana have moved to either legalize or decriminalize abortion. The regional trend stands in contrast to the United States, where the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 placed the country among a small group of nations making it harder for women to end their pregnancies.

Mexico’s Supreme Court, in a brief statement announcing the ruling, said that penalizing abortion was “unconstitutional” and “violates the human rights of women.”