00:00 Mexico's Supreme Court has decriminalized abortion nationwide.
00:07 The judgment comes two years after the court ruled in favor of a challenge to the existing
00:11 law in the northern state of Coahuila.
00:15 It had ruled that criminal penalties for terminating pregnancies were unconstitutional.
00:20 Mexico states and the federal government had since been slow to repeal penal codes.
00:26 The new ruling legalizes abortion across all 32 states.
00:30 The Supreme Court said that the denial of the possibility of a termination violated
00:34 the human rights of women.
00:37 The head of the Supreme Court, Arturo Zaldivar, said, "In cases of rape, no girl can be forced
00:43 to become a mother, neither by the state nor by her parents nor her guardians.
00:48 Here, the violation of her rights is more serious not only because of her status as
00:53 a victim but also because of her age, which makes it necessary to analyze the issue from
00:58 the perspective of the best interests of minors."
01:01 The judgment opens the door for the federal health care system to provide abortions.
01:06 It has been welcomed by women's rights groups.
01:09 Mexico City was the first of the country's states to decriminalize abortion in 2007,
01:14 and a dozen others followed suit.
01:16 According to reports, the new ruling is likely to draw criticism from Mexico's more conservative
01:21 politicians and the Catholic Church in what is Latin America's second-largest Catholic
01:25 nation.
01:26 However, the Church's influence has seen decline in recent years, and the country's
01:32 government considers itself staunchly secular.
01:35 Latin America has seen a trend towards loosening abortion restrictions that have been referred
01:40 to as a "green wave."
01:42 Elective abortion is legal in Colombia, Cuba, Uruguay, and Argentina.
01:47 Some countries allow abortions in circumstances such as rape or health risks, while outright
01:52 bans apply in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
01:58 The reforms in Mexico and other Latin American countries contrast with the situation in the
02:02 United States, where the Supreme Court ruling last year overturned the landmark 1973 Roe
02:07 vs Wade decision guaranteeing the right to abortion nationwide.
02:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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