Faced with the possibility of decriminalizing abortion in the state of Yucatán (Mexico), Xóchitl Ignacio, campaign leader in the state for 40 Days for Life, urged legislators to protect children in the womb, highlighting that “it is our “It is our duty as citizens to protect the weakest, without a doubt, the unborn child and the abandoned mother.”
The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), the highest judicial body of Mexico with powers of the Constitutional Court, ruled in favor of an amparo presented by a civil association that, according to the project, “is dedicated to promoting sexual and reproductive rights,” as well as “the provision of legal termination of pregnancy services.”
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He original project, presented in the First Chamber of the SCJN by Minister Ana Margarita Ríos Farjat, on Wednesday, August 21, only sought to protect the civil organization so that “the constitutional clause that protects life from fertilization and the regulatory system” would not penalize them. .
According to the document, the laws that protect life in the state prevent the organization from “freely fulfilling its corporate purpose, since the threat of criminalization influences the conditions in which it carries out its work, generating a deterrent effect on those who wish to interrupt her pregnancy voluntarily and reproduces a social vision that imposes motherhood as a mandatory destiny.”
By a majority of three votes of the ministers Loretta Ortiz Ahlf, Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá and Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena, it was decided that the sentence will also force the modification of the first article of the Political Constitution of Yucatán as well as articles 390, 392 and 393 of the state Penal Code.
The ruling does not specify a gestation period for the decriminalization of abortion, and this could be established by the Yucatan Congress when evaluating the SCJN’s request.
Currently, the Constitution of the State of Yucatán “recognizes, protects and guarantees the right to life of every human being, by expressly maintaining that from the moment of fertilization they enter under the protection of the law and are considered born for all corresponding legal purposes, until their natural death.” ”.
Likewise, the Penal Code The state establishes penalties for anyone who causes a woman to abort, as well as for the mother who “voluntarily procures her abortion or consents to another having her aborted.”
They ask that life be repeated
In an interview with ACI Prensa, Xóchitl Ignacio pointed out that the decriminalization of abortion “is an issue that should concern us all as part of a society.”
He warned that by allowing it in “such a deliberate manner” other serious crimes are allowed in, “such as child trafficking, prostitution, deliberate rape.”
“It is our duty as citizens to protect the weakest and, without a doubt, the unborn child and the abandoned, confused, possibly threatened mother are,” said Xóchitl Ignacio.
Once the sentence is notified, the Congress of Yucatán must begin the legislative process and vote for or against the repeal of the articles of the Penal Code that criminalize voluntary abortion.
That is why the pro-life leader asked legislators “that, based on scientific arguments, the life of the unborn child as well as the mother be protected,” and also that “universal rights be respected, in accordance with the universal declaration of human rights.” ”.
They follow the same route for decriminalization
In a similar case, in September 2023, the SCJN declared the criminalization of abortion in the Federal Penal Code “unconstitutional.”
The sentence responded to an amparo presented by the feminist organization Grupo de Información en Reproduction Elegida (GIRE) against articles 330, 331 and 332 of the Federal Penal Code, which establish sanctions for women who abort, for health professionals who perform the procedure and for those who pressure women to abort.
This decision implied that the Congress of Aguascalientes discussed and approved on December 15 the decriminalization of abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.
In a video in 2023, Marcial Padilla, director of the pro-life platform ConParticipación, denounced that the Supreme Court seeks to “impose abortion through protections at the national level.”
“What abortionists have not achieved through Congress, they are imposing through the courts. That goes against all the laws of democracy,” he indicated.
Padilla indicated that the criminalization of abortion does not seek to “harm women,” but rather that “human life cannot be unprotected before being born.”
Diego López Colin
I am a graduate of Journalism at the Carlos Septién García School with experience in religious institutional communication. Since 2016 he has written for digital media and, since 2018, I have reported the most important news about Catholic events in Mexico for the EWTN news channel. He has been ACI Prensa correspondent in Mexico since 2023.