Mexico’s Abortion Legalization Marks the Latest Success in Latin America’s ‘Green Tide’
Protesters celebrate the decriminalization of abortion in Quintana Roo, Mexico in 2022. Source: Reuters/Paola Garcia
On Sept. 6, Mexico’s Supreme Court decided to decriminalize abortion nationwide. The nation is now the most populous one in Latin America to provide legal access to corresponding medicines and procedures.
Proponents of the abortion-rights movement “Green Tide,” or Marea Verde, waved banners and demanded the furthering of progressive abortion rights in states’ legislation following the Court’s decision. The activists wear the color green in homage to the Eighteenth National Women's Meeting in Rosario, Argentina in 2003. Marta Alanis, the founder of Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (Catholics for the Right to Decide) in Argentina, first proposed the color as the symbol for abortion-rights activism when she brought a green scarf to the convention. The idea to use the scarf as a symbol of protest references the mothers who protested the disappearances of their children during the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla in 1977. Those mothers used white scarves as a rallying cry behind their “disappeared” children. Alanis stated that the color green “is a symbol of hope, health, life.”
Advocates for reproductive rights celebrate in Colombia in 2023. Source: Reuters/Luisa Gonzalez
Despite the progress in federal law, 20 Mexican states still criminalize abortion in their state penal codes. Mexico City was the first jurisdiction within the country to decriminalize it in 2007. Since then, many states have followed suit: all except Guanajuato and Querétaro already legalized it outright for cases where the mother’s life is at stake.
The Mexican Supreme Court initially ordered the Northern state of Coahuila to remove punishments for abortion from criminal code in 2021, however the Sept. 6 decision made access legal nationwide. The verdict sparked outrage by a large number of people in the predominantly Catholic country. Despite the fact that abortion became legal last year, there are currently 22 ongoing investigations against women who are accused of terminating their pregnancies in the Southern state of Guerrero.
Pro-life advocates in Mexico City in 2018. Source: Sashenka Gutierrez/EPA-EFE
According to the old legislation, any woman found to have aborted a pregnancy would be subject to between one and three years in prison, with the same to be applied for anyone found to be an accomplice to an abortion. Similar punishments can be found in the current federal penal codes of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Bolivia and Brazil. Harsher consequences are still in place in countries such as Belize, which enforces imprisonment of up to 14 years for regular cases of abortion, and a lifetime in prison for self-induced cases.
In the Latin American bloc, only Argentina, Columbia and Mexico have legalized abortion. Notwithstanding the progress in repealing discriminatory old penal codes, abortion in non-life-threatening cases is still generally regarded as taboo in these three countries.
Some political pundits have spoken out on behalf of pro-life perspectives in Mexico since the ruling. According to the Catholic Review, The Mexican bishops’ conference condemned the Mexican Supreme Court’s recent decision, stating that “[the ruling] does not constitute a general declaration invalidating the articles that prohibit abortion in the federal criminal code, since they remain in effect for the rest of the population; nor does it represent an obligation for local legislatures to rush to change their respective criminal codes.”
As the United States' moves to repeal previous precedent in regard to reproductive rights, exponents of the Green Tide pride themselves on recent progress in Latin America. Some people see the new legislative changes in Mexico as a profound source of inspiration for women's rights advocacy in the United States. Crystal P. Lira is one such activist and acompañante (a volunteer who supports women wanting to terminate a pregnancy) that is taking initiative to replicate some of the current reproductive care strategies that Mexican medical organizations have fostered in the US. The cooperation of women across borders holds the potential for great structural change, as evidenced by the new advancements in Mexico.