In the 1920s, the intention was to “rebuild the nation,” which had been devastated by previous events. This is why the scientific and intellectual elite seeks eugenics and prophylaxis. Through measures to promote the health of mothers and children, but also others that are now reprehensible, such as the reduction of racial heterogeneity, the restriction of marriage or forced sterilization; He tries to “cleanse” society of the elements they believe to be “factors of delay and degeneration”. Feminists at the time agreed with some of these issues (only those related to granting more rights to women), and so they began to imbue themselves with the issue of abortion. “Good manners” and the outdated vision of female roles: giving birth and raising are also back. Although they now have some legal advantages, motherhood will continue to be a patriotic and civic task that all Mexican women should perform. During Álvaro Obregón`s tenure, José Vasconcelos (Secretary of Public Education) and Rafael Alducin (founder of the newspaper Excélsior) founded May 10 as Mother`s Day in Mexico in 1922. Some authors, such as Marta Lamas, even point out that this strategy was aimed at curbing the demands of radical jurispatial feminism. It is also said that the pressure exerted against the ecclesiastical hierarchy by the political constitution of the United Mexican States (promulgated in 1917) was not really aimed at liberating the conscience of society, but at changing the center of gravity of Mexican public morality. Nevertheless, between 1926 and 1929 (under the government of Plutarco Elías Calles), the Cristero War broke out in the most conservative regions of the country, which again ended with an armistice. However, a significant part of the artistic elite prefers to transcend these paradigms and live outside of those paradigms that censor pleasure, eroticism and sensuality. This was the case of Carmen Mondragón Valseca (Nahui Ollin), Tina Modotti or Frida Kahlo. [150] [151] In October 2019, the state of Oaxaca approved legal abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, as well as reforms to Articles 312, 313, 315, and 316 of the state`s penal code.
In Mexico, the legal status of induced abortion depends on both federal and local regulatory frameworks. Unlike in other Latin American countries, including with federal regimes (such as Argentina, Venezuela or Brazil), the political constitution of the United Mexican States grants autonomy to each of the 32 federal entities that make up the Mexican Republic to enact issues related to criminal law, health or the protection of victims of sexual violence for their own benefit; as long as they do not conflict with the general laws. For this reason, the analysis of legal abortion in Mexico is complex, as it is a similar puzzle to what is happening in the other two large neighboring associations in North America (United States and Canada). At the Latin American level, the only places where the practice of abortion is legal, regardless of why the woman decided to perform it, are Cuba, Uruguay, Guyana, French Guiana and Puerto Rico, according to an article in Animal Político. Abortion is legal in CDMX, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Baja California, Colima, Baja California Sur and Guerrero for all women who go to legal abortion clinics, they can do it freely and without specifying the cause that leads them to make this decision before the 12th week of pregnancy. In Sinaloa, it is up to 13 weeks of pregnancy. Unlike what happened throughout the country, in the Federal District at the time, led by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (once associated with the progressive left in the Mexican political spectrum), legal abortion was gradually liberalized. In the first place, also in 2000, the Robles law was adopted, so called because it was promoted by the head of government at the time, Rosario Robles Berlanga. The reform included new assumptions and reasons, as well as the definition that the Public Prosecutor`s Office would be responsible for approving the procedure if the pregnancy was the result of rape, thus dissolving the legal vacuum that had existed since 1931.
Then, the PAN and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (with which it had formed an electoral alliance in the federal elections of the same year and with which it represented a third of the seats in the legislative assembly of the Federal District) jointly filed an unconstitutional lawsuit before the SCJN, which was decided a year later. Thus, in January 2002, the SCJN confirmed its constitutionality by a simple majority of 7 votes (including openly Catholic ministers like Mariano Azuela and despite the threat of excommunication). Only 6 ministers, for their part, were in favour of granting the Public Prosecutor`s Office and not the judge permission to abort in cases of sexual assault, so this part was also ratified in practical terms. From there, the SCJN began to develop as a reformist institution in favor of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the current general constitution. [179] [180] [181] [182] Currently, of Mexico`s 32 states, only 9 recognize abortion as a right of women who are free to legally terminate their pregnancies until the 12th week of pregnancy and one state until the 13th week of pregnancy. Mexico City is the entity whose legislation has abortion until the 12th century. Longest pregnancy week (2007).
