ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 20, 2023 / 18:30 pm
Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) declared three articles that criminalize abortion in the penal code of Chihuahua state to be unconstitutional. In response to the decision, pro-life leaders criticized this “great blow” against the “fundamental and inalienable right to life.”
On Oct. 18, the SCJN declared invalid articles 143 and 145 of the penal code of the state of Chihuahua, which establish penalties for women who abort and for those who pressure women to abort. The ruling also declared article 146 to be invalid, which establishes the cases in which abortion while technically remaining a crime has no penalty.
According to the press release from the Supreme Court, the sentence was reviewed in response to a request for an injunction filed by a woman who argued that the legal system that criminalizes abortion is “contrary to the human rights of reproductive autonomy, free development of personality, equality, and nondiscrimination, health, legal security, as well as freedom of conscience.”
Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Uriel Esqueda, a member of the Mexican platform Actívate (Get Active), pointed out that this ruling “is a great blow to the fundamental and inalienable right to life” and also a “violation of legislative autonomy and powers, forcing the Congress of Chihuahua to comply with a pro-abortion agenda.”