"Today [we have made] one more step in women’s historic fight for equality, dignity and empowerment," Supreme Court President Arturo Zaldivar said at a hearing aired on YouTube.
In a unanimous 10-0 vote, the court ordered the northern state of Coahuila to remove the 196 article on punishment for abortion from its criminal code. Women accused of the termination of pregnancy were sentenced to 1-3 years in prison, regardless of the causes of abortions, according to the state’s legislation.
The court’s decision will be applied throughout the country, repealing the states’ laws penalizing abortions. To date, only four out of 32 Mexican states have allowed abortions before 12 weeks of pregnancy, while other states barred the procedure at any stage of pregnancy in case there were no medical emergency or rape.
On September 2, the US Supreme Court declined to block the Texas "heartbeat" law, which bars abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Opponents of the law say that banning abortions at such an early stage equals to the general prohibition of the procedure, as 90% of women turning to hospitals for abortions are more than six weeks pregnant. The previous abortion ban threshold in Texas was 20 weeks.