Mexico is the latest Latin American country to decriminalise abortion

The Supreme Court’s decision to legalise the procedure across all 32 states follows a growing trend throughout the region, which is renowned for its deeply conservative values.

On Wednesday, Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously ordered that abortion be removed from the federal penal code across all 32 states, in a historic decision welcomed by women’s rights groups throughout the country.

The ruling will mean access to the procedure for millions, an extension of a growing trend in Latin America known as the ‘green wave.’

In recent years, this movement — which has seen feminist campaigners region-wide challenge societies plagued by hostile attitudes towards women’s bodies — has brought about a string of legal victories for reproductive rights.

Following in the footsteps of Colombia, Uruguay, and Argentina, Mexico’s Supreme Court said the denial of the possibility of terminating a pregnancy ‘violated the human rights of women and people with the capacity to gestate’ and announced that the federal public health service and all federal health institutions will now be required to offer abortion to anyone who requests it.