On August 1st, the Second Collegiate Criminal Court of the Twenty-fourth Circuit ordered the repeal of the articles prohibiting elective abortion from the Penal Code of Nayarit. The Court ruled that these articles are unconstitutional and a form of gender discrimination. In a similar ruling, just one week later on August 9th, the Second Collegiate Criminal Court of the Twenty-third Circuit also struck down the articles restricting abortion of the Penal Code of Zacatecas.
The Green Tide has now reached the beaches of Nayarit and the mountains of Zacatecas!
Our national strategy, implemented since the beginning of 2022, has resulted in both decisions. Its objective is clear: to ensure that no pregnant woman or gender non-conforming person, nor health personnel or those who provide accompaniment, can be criminalized in relation to abortion.
GIRE highlights that this work was made possible thanks to the collaboration with local collectives, such as Aquellare Púrpura and Redefine Nayarit (in the case of Nayarit) and Adornos del Semi-Desierto (in the case of Zacatecas).
Even more recently, on August 21st, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation upheld this precedent in a legal stay filled by the organizations Servicios Humanitarios en Salud Sexual y Reproductiva (SHSSR), UNASSE and AbortistasMx, and ordered the repeal of the articles prohibiting elective abortion in the Penal Code of the state of Yucatán.
Rebecca Ramos, head of GIRE, says: “We are delighted to see an increasing number of judges protecting the reproductive rights of all people.”
Melissa Ayala, GIRE’s Litigation and Case Documentation Coordinator, attended the Reproductive Justice Litigation Baraza held on July 12-14 in Uganda. The event, led by the Ahaki organization, brought together experts from Argentina, Colombia, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe to exchange experiences on how the decriminalization of abortion has been litigated in different countries’ high courts.
SOURCE: Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE), Mexico. Newsletter, E-mail: 27 August 2024.