Mexico’s Supreme Court has decriminalized abortion across the country

Mexico's Supreme Court has officially decriminalized abortion across the country.

It found that state laws that prevent women and non-binary pregnant people who wanted to terminate their pregnancy were 'unconstitutional', according to the Associated Press.

The ruling said banning abortion violates a person's right to choose.

"The First Chamber of #LaCorte ruled that the legal system that penalizes abortion in the Federal Criminal Code is unconstitutional, since it violates the human rights of women and people with the capacity to gestate," the court wrote on X.

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The decriminalization movement kicked off two years ago when the Supreme Court said abortion wasn't a crime in the state of Coahuila, which is on the border with Texas.

Court President Arturo Zaldívar said in that case that the precedent would serve as an 'obligatory criteria for all of the country’s judges'.

“From now on you will not be able to, without violating the court’s criteria and the constitution, charge any woman who aborts under the circumstances this court has ruled as valid," he said.

It was a chain reaction that spread across Mexico and has now been handed down at the federal level.

Aguascalientes was the latest state to adopt the measure and that only happened last week.

The Supreme Court's decision now means the federal public health service and all federal health institutions will have to provide an abortion to anyone who requests it.

The federal penal code will also be updated to have the crime of abortion removed.

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Mexico City reproductive rights organization GIRE was pleased to see the violation decriminalized.

"Having been approved unanimously, this sentence becomes mandatory for all local and federal judges, who will have to implement what was said by the Court," the group said.

"At GIRE we trust that the country's entities, whose legislation still hinders reproductive autonomy, take into account the criteria of the highest court of justice in order to guarantee the right to decide for women and people with the capacity to become pregnant."

Mexico joins a host of South American countries like Argentina and Colombia who have taken steps to allow women and non-binary people to access safe and legal abortions.

Meanwhile, further north, some states in the United States have made it harder or even illegal to terminate a pregnancy.