Abortion Is No Longer a Crime in Mexico. But Most Women Still Can’t Get One.

MEXICO CITY — When the Supreme Court in Mexico issued a historic decision on Tuesday declaring that having an abortion was not a crime, activists across the country celebrated. On Wednesday, they got back to work, taking on the long and arduous process of ensuring that the legal shift applies across Mexico.

Among their top priorities are helping the women who need it most: those facing criminal penalties, often after having been reported to the authorities for trying to induce an abortion themselves under dangerous conditions.

“We have seen terrible cases where they do it with coat hangers, where they hit their bellies,” said Arely Torres Miranda, a reproductive rights advocate in the state of San Luis Potosí. “They put their lives at risk.”

In the first seven months of this year, 432 investigations were opened across Mexico into cases of illegal abortion, according to the Mexican government.

The ruling set a legal precedent for the nation — and stands in stark contrast to the trend in the United States, where Texas and other states have recently moved to restrict abortion. The court’s decision also raised prospect of Mexico eventually becoming a destination for American women seeking to end their pregnancies, advocates said, though that would require removing the many obstacles that make abortion difficult to obtain in much of the country.

Tuesday’s decision applies only to the border state of Coahuila, and putting it into practice nationwide requires either legal challenges in each of the 28 states in Mexico that still criminalize the procedure, or a change in law by state legislatures. The justices did not specify how far into a pregnancy a woman can legally obtain an abortion, meaning those terms will likely be determined at the state level.

A leading reproductive rights group in Mexico, GIRE, said that in Coahuila it would push for abortion to be legal in the state for 12 weeks after conception at a minimum — a time limit established in the law that made abortion legal in Mexico City, which was previously validated by the Supreme Court.

If that were case, Coahuila would have more permissive abortions rules than neighboring Texas, where the state legislature recently implemented a ban on abortions after the fetal heartbeat is detected, generally around six weeks.

In time, women from Texas could potentially cross the border to have an abortion — but for now, there wouldn’t be enough infrastructure in place to meet the need, activists said.

“There is more to be done before women and people who can get pregnant in Texas are able to get the service in Coahuila,” said Melissa Ayala, coordinator of litigation for GIRE. “We still have a ways to go to ensure the service is provided.”

Local activists have already begun working on a strategy to force states to fall in line with the court’s ruling, though their fight to make abortion legal and safe across the country could be a long one. Only Mexico City, and three other states, allowed abortions on request before Tuesday’s decision.

“We are already organized and ready to take advantage of the opportunity that the court’s new decision offers,” said Ms. Torres Miranda. “What we need to do is make them change the law.”

That plan is likely to meet resistance. Mexico’s conservative PAN party, one of the main opposition parties, has opposed any effort to legalize the procedure and expressed dismay over the court’s ruling.

“I will continue fighting from my trench for the respect of the right to life,” said Victor Fuentes, a PAN senator from the northern state of Nuevo León on Twitter after the court’s ruling.

Since Mexico City legalized abortion in 2007, a network of activists based there has worked together to offer women seeking abortion a safe path, either by transporting them to the capital or providing them misoprostol, a drug commonly used to induce abortion.

But many women are too scared to reach out to those groups and opt to obtain clandestine abortions.

When those methods go wrong or lead to excessive bleeding, women often go to hospitals. But federal law requires medical providers to notify authorities when a patient presents signs of having been involved in criminal activity, which could include having an abortion.

“Yesterday’s ruling will also allow us, when we modify the law, to remove the obligation for the health sector to report when they discover an abortion,” Ms. Torres Miranda said.

Generally, the women who are most marginalized — who are poor and live in rural areas — are the ones who face criminal penalties for having an abortion, Ms. Torres Miranda said, adding that there are five women currently under investigation for receiving an abortion in San Luis Potosí.

According to Victoria Cruz, a lawyer and activist who heads Las Libres, an abortion rights group, there are currently no women in Mexican prisons because of abortion, even if cases are still being investigated by authorities.

The landmark decision on Tuesday is the first of several cases on abortion rights to be taken up by the Supreme Court this month. On Thursday, justices will examine whether a provision in the law of Sinaloa state which protects life from conception is similarly unconstitutional. Given the court’s recent rulings in favor of abortion access, analysts say it is very likely that the judges will rule to strike the law.

But among the general population, the issue remains divisive: Mexico is a largely socially conservative country where the Catholic church holds significant sway. A majority of Mexicans are still opposed to legal abortion, polling shows.

But attitudes have shifted over time. In 2005, just 12 percent of the country was in favor of legalizing abortion in all cases, according to a poll from the research firm Parametria. A 2019 poll conducted by the El Financiero newspaper found that almost one-third of Mexicans said they were in favor of full legalization.

As public opinion has shifted, the women’s rights movement has become increasingly emboldened, taking to the streets and pushing for change in the courthouse and in state legislatures.

For many who have been working on this issue for decades, the Supreme Court’s decision represents a watershed moment. Estela Kempis, who has been helping women gain access to abortion in the state of Morelos for 20 years, compared it to women gaining the right to vote.

“It gives me immense joy because I never thought I would see this with my own eyes,” she said through tears. “I feel like I’m coming out of the darkness, out of that cave where it seemed like there were only shadows and now it’s time to see the light.”