Mexico Supreme Court Rejects State’s Effort to Decriminalize Abortion

The Supreme Court of Mexico rejected a bid Wednesday by the state of Veracruz to decriminalize abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Four out of the five Supreme Court justices voted against upholding an injunction granted in the eastern state that abortion rights supporters hoped would set a precedent in other states, reported BBC.

According to the report, one justice said that upholding the injunction would “greatly overstep the constitutional powers of this Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.”

Catherine Glenn Foster, president of Americans United for Life, praised Mexico’s high court for protecting the right to life in a statement sent to Breitbart News:

What separates this moment in time from similar moments in U.S. history is that the Justices in Mexico understood that their mandate was not to make new laws and overturn the will of the people, but instead to interpret the law as it was written and commonly understood. The bravery and honesty of the Mexican Supreme Court contrast sharply with the actions of the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade and cases since that have ignored the democratic process in favor of an unfettered “right” to abortion.

Last year, a judge in Xalapa, Veracruz, approved the injunction. Abortion rights activist group GIRE “hoped the court’s decision would be a ‘historic opportunity’ for pro-choice campaigners,” BBC reported, given abortion is legal in only two of Mexico’s 32 states, Oaxaca and Mexico City.

In 2008, the Supreme Court upheld Mexico City’s abortion law, a decision that gave states the right to set their own policies.

BBC noted, however, that, in the wake of that decision, “more than half of Mexico’s states enacted laws that banned abortion in either all or most circumstances,” including Veracruz, which, in 2016, adopted a constitutional amendment that declares life begins at conception.

“The U.S is still only one of seven nations, of 198 across the globe, that legalizes abortion for any reason after fetal viability,” Foster said. “We can learn so much from our brothers and sisters to the South. Today I celebrate with all of the mothers, fathers, and children in Mexico who will be spared from the horrors of abortion.”