The Supreme Court in Mexico has ruled that preventing a woman from having an abortion is unconstitutional.

The criminalisation of abortion was not consistent with the country's constitution, the court ruled in a unanimous vote on Tuesday.

The decision will allow all Mexican women to have access to abortion and those who have been imprisoned for having an abortion to regain their freedom.

It has been described as historic by human rights activists in the conservative, heavily Catholic Latin American country.

Unsafe abortions are the fourth leading cause of maternal death in Mexico, according to the Reproductive Choice Information Group (GIRE). 

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had first addressed the issues before announcing the decision at his daily morning press conference on Tuesday.  He said afterwards that it was a controversial issue and that the best he could do was to let the Supreme Court deal with it.

Mexico is a federated country with an independent state in the application of its laws, but it can be abolished by appealing when they violate a decision of the Supreme Court which holds a public trial, as it did on Tuesday.

As a reminder, Mexico City decriminalised abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy in 2007 and it is performed free of charge in the city's clinics, whether or not women live in other neighbourhoods. Apart from Mexico, Oaxa, Hidalgo, Veracruz and several other states have decriminalised abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Santie

Photo Credit : BENIN WEB TV

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