Congress of Guerrero decriminalizes abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation

The congress of Guerrero approved this Tuesday the decriminalization of abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation, which adds up to eight Mexican districts with similar legislation.

The amendment to the criminal code of Warrior to allow the free interruption of pregnancy was approved by 30 votes in favor, 13 against, one abstention and one null vote.

The initiative was promoted by Brunette, of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The decriminalization of abortion it had been discussed in this district for 15 years.

Warrior It is one of the states with the highest rates of poverty and marginalization, where in some communities women are forced to marry or live with a man at a very young age and become mothers.

The state, hit by violence linked to drug trafficking, also has high rates of rape of women and deaths from clandestine abortions, according to Guerrero deputy Beatriz Mojica, from the Morena party.

“Of the women who are raped, many of them are girls and are forced to continue their pregnancy (…) it is important to guarantee the poorest women access” to a safe abortion, the legislator told the television station Millennium.

In Mexico abortion has been decriminalized in Mexico City, Oaxaca, Baja California, Sonora, Colima, Veracruz and Hidalgo.

In September 2021, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation declared unconstitutional the laws that criminalize abortionwhich authorizes it de facto throughout the country.

This ruling also allows women who reside in states where it is still sanctioned to file a legal recourse so that health institutions perform an abortion on them.

In Latin America the Interruption of pregnancy it is legal in Uruguay, Cuba, Argentina, Guyana and Colombia, while El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Haiti are the most restrictive countries as they do not allow it under any circumstances.

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