Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled to federally decriminalize abortion on Wednesday, finding that the current ban on the procedure is unconstitutional.
“The First Chamber of the Court ruled that the legal system that penalizes abortion in the Federal Criminal Code is unconstitutional, since it violates the human rights of women and people with the capacity to gestate,” the Supreme Court said on social media.
Abortion has already been decriminalized in 12 states in Mexico. The most recent ruling, which took place in the central state of Aguascalientes just days ago, was lauded online, Reuters reported, with rights activists posting green hearts on social media.
The hearts represent the so-called Green Wave, the social movement for reproductive rights that has swept Latin America since the start of this century.
Mexico’s Supreme Court first said that it was unconstitutional to criminalize abortion in 2021, ruling against a law in the state of Coahuila, which threatened women who undergo abortions with up to three years prison and a fine.
The country has become an unexpected haven for US residents after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
Verónica Cruz, an abortion rights activists, told CNN in 2022 that she was surprised to find Mexico “going forward, and the US is going backward.”