Yucatán, State 22 of Mexico to approve legislation in favor of abortion

The Yucatan State Congress approved on April 9 the decriminalization of abortion at request until 12 weeks gestation, modifying the local Criminal Code, although the State Constitution continues to protect life from the moment of fertilization.

The vote in the LXIV Legislature resulted in 22 votes in favor and 13 against, which allowed to modify the State Criminal Code. In an ordinary session, the deputies Aprobaron The opinion “in matters of reproductive autonomy and the right to decide of women and pregnant people”, alineting a sentence issued by the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) in 2023.

Following this judgment, Yucatán modified its legislation, establishing that the Criminal Code includes, according to Comunicated from the local Congress“The right to decide for women and pregnant people until 12 weeks.” In addition, the penalties for forced abortion were increased, which went from 3 to 8 years in prison to 5 and 10 years; And in the case of forced abortion with violence, sentences increased from 6 to 9 years, to 9 and 15 years in prison.

However, life protection remains in force in the Constitution of Yucatan, which “recognizes, protects and guarantees the right to the life of every human being, expressly supporting that from the moment of fertilization enters under the protection of the law and is reputed as born for all the corresponding legal effects.”

As for this issue, legislators tried to modify the Constitution, but the proposal was not approved by a qualified majority. With 22 votes in favor and 13 against, the opinion of the Constitutional Points Commission failed to be ratified, so the commission for analysis will be turned again.

Abortion in Mexico

With this modification, Yucatan became the Mexican state number 22 to have legislation in favor of abortion.

Since Claudia Sheinbaum assumed the presidency in October 2024 and with the majority control of her party, Morena, various local congresses have followed this same line. In the 191 days of his term, the states that have decriminalized abortion are Jalisco, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, State of Mexico, Chiapas, Nayarit, Chihuahua and Campeche.

“It’s not just your body”

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Yucatan, Mons. Gustavo Rodríguez Vega expressed his disagreement with the decision of the legislators and regretted the approval of the opinion.

In statements to the media, he recalled that “God created us to take care of our life and the life of all others and within all others is the human being who lives in the womb from the first moment.”

In addition, Mons. Rodríguez Vega called for “servants of life, of which he is barely conceived, but of human life while the human being lives until his last moment of natural death.”

Also, he asked the pregnant women in a vulnerable situation that “they do not desperate for poverty issues and somehow this can be resolved.”

The prelate stressed that “a decision about his body, about his person”, as is usually repeated in these cases, but involves the “human being who already lives in his belly.”