Mexico’s supreme court has decriminalized abortion across the country, two years after ruling that abortion was not a crime in one northern state.

That earlier ruling had set off a grinding process of decriminalizing abortion state by state. Last week, the central state of Aguascalientes became the 12th state to decriminalize the procedure. Judges in states that still criminalize abortion will have to take account of the top court’s ruling.

The supreme court wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that it had decided that “the legal system that criminalized abortion in the Federal Penal Code is unconstitutional, [because] it violates the human rights of women and people with the ability to gestate.”

  • cogman@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Pretty crazy. Mexico has traditionally been VERY catholic. The fact that it has become more progressive than the US on women’s rights really speaks volumes about how terrible the US has become.

    I suspect a LOT of abortions happening down in the west texas town of el paso.

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Pretty crazy. Mexico has traditionally been VERY catholic. The fact that it has become more progressive than the US on women’s rights really speaks volumes about how terrible the US has become.

      In some ways it might be about sending a clear signal that they arent interested in following the political or cultural leadership of the US.

    • Aarrodri@lemmy.world
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      They also legalized same sex marriage a while ago. Yes they are religious but they are not “bible belt fundamentalists”… there is also universal healthcare. Did you know several American doctors go study there and just come back to pass the exams? Mexico had it’s problems but it’s not as bad as they make it seem here. Most immigrants that come here are at the bottom of the barrel of the economical scale.

      • ObiWon_KanBloMi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It has been bred into Americans that every other country sucks but theirs. It’s honestly pretty dystopian to think about.

        • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          It’s not all Americans, it’s mostly trash Americans who have nothing else to be proud of except having fallen out of the hole of someone who also happened to be born here.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      Well, most Americans are progressive on the issues, including abortion, but due to absurd things like the Electoral College, and the way our power is distributed through states and the way in which rural areas have much more influence than they should, conservatives are given way too much power in relation to their numbers.

      • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Oh please, if we didn’t have the electoral college the south wouldn’t be able to serve as the moral compass of the country and couldn’t guide us away from such evils as slavery and racism.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      Catholics might be against abortion, but they are no where near as vocal as some other Christian sects in the US.

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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          That’s absolutely not true, it was just viewed as a sexual sin before. The catholic church has been against abortion since the 1500s, arguably you could even say it goes back to the early 600s when they tried to find ways to distance themselves from pagans. It wasn’t until the late 1960s when public opinion changed about it being a sin against taking life, then I believe in the 70s the Pope made a public statement, which made it canonical.

          As a random side note, St. Thomas of Aquinas take on fetal status was kind of interesting. He viewed a fetus as having 3 states or “souls”; a vegetative soul, an animal soul, and finally a rational soul once the body was completely developed.

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            " In 1591 the new Pope Gregory XIV reversed the decision, declaring abortion to only be homicide if it took place after ensoulment, which he determined took place 166 days into a pregnancy, or well over halfway through the second trimester. This decision lasted for 278 years until Pope Pius IX reversed the decision yet again in 1869 and made abortion after conception a sin that automatically excommunicated those involved in its procurement from the Catholic Church."

            166 days would be over 5 months.

            • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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              From at least 1500s on it was never “fine” it has always been a sexual sin, that can lead to excommunication from the church. How that works in practice is extremely regional. Even prior to the 1500s it was still an excommunicable offense in most areas, there just isn’t documented policy that I know of.

              I also love how whatever quote that is from is using the word “trimester” in relation to something from 1591 when the US Supreme Court coined the term centuries later.

              • candybrie@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                They use trimester to make it meaningful to modern readers, not to imply the rule used that language originally. Like if you were to say “a cubit, or about a foot and a half.”

  • meco03211@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    …people with the ability to gestate.

    Got that 1-2 punch of abortion progress and inclusive language.

  • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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    Did y’all know that Mexico also has a form of universal healthcare. Pretty soon the flow of illegal immigrants might start going the other way.

    • Stern@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Lot of folks hop the border for a bit for the far cheaper dental care down there.

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        1 year ago

        I’ve heard of a lot of people doing this. Pretty bad when driving to an entire other country for dental care is cheaper.

          • ours@lemmy.film
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            1 year ago

            I’m picturing her going to Russia for cheaper healthcare. She did claim she could see Russia from her house.

            • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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              That was Tina Fey. Palin said that you can see Russia from part of Alaska which is true since there are a couple islands that are like 10 miles away from some Russian islands. Saying that that gives you some sort of foreign policy experience is idiotic though.

        • Nastybutler@lemmy.world
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          Driving? Hell I had a coworker who would fly there from Alaska to get dental work done and even with his week long hotel stay while he recuperated still saved thousands of dollars

        • Tarzan9192@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I’ve done this with my wife. It saved us thousands of dollars. And the place was very clean and professional.

          • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’ve heard horror stories, ironically all from dentists in the US, about dentists in Mexico. But I hear a lot more stories like yours about how it was great, and they managed to save a ton of money.

            • Tarzan9192@sh.itjust.works
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              I’m sure there are scammers, but my wife did a lot of research before we went. The dentist we went to in TJ actually got her degree in San Bernardino, CA like 40 mins from where we live. If you do your due diligence the process can go pretty smoothly, and yes, save a ton of cash.

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      There is already a good amount of medical tourism to Mexico from the US.

    • Vox_Ursus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That said, the entire mexican public health service system is absolute shit, so much so that the president acknowleged it as recently a last year.

      • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        so much so that the president acknowleged it

        Acknowledging it is the first step to improving it. We have Republicans who have the gall to claim that we have the best healthcare in the world.

        • Vox_Ursus@lemmy.world
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          Completely agree. The fact they’re restructuring and allocating funds at least seems to suggest that they’re taking it seriously, and even if it’s baby steps, it’s something

    • AnthropomorphicCat@lemmy.world
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      Unfortunately that healthcare is shitty and way over capacity. But still, at least we have something we can improve, instead of just nothing at all.

      • Kage520@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Can you describe that? I feel like everyone says that about Canada, Europe, etc. But when I try to nail down what they are afraid of, they are like, “if I need a knee surgery I want it NOW! That could take months in Canada!”

        Is it like that, or are there like actual life threatening problems being unaddressed?

        • AnthropomorphicCat@lemmy.world
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          Some of the most recent examples: recently there has been a critical shortage of psychiatric medicines. Lots of people didn’t have access to their antidepressants, antipsychotics, and lots of other medicines you can’t skip without disastrous effects. While I don’t use public health care, I still had trouble finding some of my prescriptions. The equipment and buildings are in disrepair, because of lack of funding and corruption. This year there was a scandal because a girl died crushed by a elevator in a clinic. Then they found lots of corruption with the company that installed the elevators. Some weird things have happened, for example, a woman went for abdominal pain and when she woke up, the doctors had amputated both of her legs. Also, it’s common that women deliver their babies outside the hospital because it is over capacity. Etc, etc…

          • cristalcommons@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            i can confirm the medicine shortage, not just in psychatric recently, but in other pharma fields, along the years.

            our Latin American brothers and sisters in Spain were doing their best to send medicines to their families in LATAM. you could also see people asking on Twitter for medicines. iirc it was commented on the news too.

            here in Spain we also have public healthcare, and we all people pay for those medicines so individuals don’t have to assume all the cost on their own. pandemic has shown our healthcare system is not as good, public and clean as our corrupt politicians tend to say, but still, we think public healthcare is the way to go.

            in Spain abortion is legal since many years, but a year ago or so, in a region of Spain, a extreme right-wing party wanted to create a regional law to make women asking for abortion feel guilty.

            medicians would be obligated to ask women “before aborting, would you want to listen to your baby’s heartbeat, or that we take a 4D radiography of them?”.

            the women could refuse, but the medicians would be obligated to ask. this extreme right-wing party tried to push this regional law proposal in an attempt to push antiabortion agenda bypassing the national abortion law.

            this right-wing party wanted to make women feel guilty of their abort decision, as if many many women hadn’t had enough guilt, doubt and sadness when asking for abortion bc they aren’t in the position of having a baby (see our emancipation, salary and unemployment rates), or they weren’t even in a position of conceiving in first place (rape, mental suffering, codependency, drug abuse, etc.). this political party wanted to take advantage on these women’s situation of vulnerability. that’s horrible.

            (also in that region, big part of medicians and population overall were known of being right-wing and sexist. that’s how this right-wing party got power to propose this law).

            fortunately, it seems we have progressed, to the point many medicians were the most angry at this, and them, along with feminists (many are both), and citizens in general didn’t allow this law to happen in this region of Spain.

            but sorry for digressing, the main point is that many people in Spain are very happy for Mexico. we wish you the best. we hope our LATAM siblings get the progress and independence they wish and deserve. we are on it too here. let’s do this 💪

        • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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          In Canada, yes stuff like joint surgeries can take a little longer to queue… But I have never actually known anyone to die on a waitlist and the turn around for things like cancer is pretty short.

          The trade off is stuff like there was a friend’s Dad that needed an emergency medical transfer from a smaller rural hospital. They did it by helicopter ambulance and he spent just shy of three months in hospital in intensive care. He didn’t have any additional medical insurance but his family never needed pay for anything. Furthermore the hospital contracted with a hotel near by so his family could stay in a nice place walking distance to the hospital for around 20 bucks a night.

          We as a country have a very small population, about the population of the state of California spread over more land mass than the entirety of the US and then some. There are challenges with that and the fact our dollar is weaker so it’s overall less lucrative, but the turn around regarding knee surgeries make a lot of sense once you realize that. Changing our system to a pay-per-play would not necessarily alleviate the wait times.

  • varoth@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Good for Mexico, that’s awesome! Too bad the U.S. is such a fucking backwards excuse of a country.

    • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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      Generally, physically.

      Spiritually is okay as a stopgap solution, say while completely stoned out of your mind, but physically and permanently is what I would advise to actually improve your standard of living. Depending on your language skills and which languages you already know, good possible destinations include:

      • Canada
      • Ireland
      • Germany
      • Norway
      • Sweden (Norwegian language is probably easier for an american though, tbh)

      If in dire straits you could also go to the UK. Especially Scotland is a really beautiful place, but keep in mind as a country UK is quite, well, fucked. It’s still a good destination, but if you’re moving, might as well do better.

      • Dass93@lemm.ee
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        I would take Sweden out of that, that country is a sinking ship right now. Go to Norway or Finland instead.

  • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    … wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter,

    It’s amazing how many times online and on TV I hear people phrase things just like this.

    No one is just calling “X”, X.

  • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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    It’d be fun to keep a tracker of how many conservatives clutch their pearls with this decision and then go vacation in Mexico on the beach. Remember, your taxes being used for abortions is evil, but willingly spending your money in Mexico and paying for abortions there is a-okay!

  • momtheregoesthatman@lemmy.world
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    All the ignorant [American] ass wipes that bemoan and slander Mexico: They’re more progressive than the USA. I know that scares the republican snowflakes. I’m glad women’s rights matter more in some areas. It should have always been about all human rights, but I’ll stop being nieve now.