File photo: A general view of the Supreme Court building where Ministers elected a new President for the Supreme Court, in Mexico City, Mexico, 2 January 2023; Credit: Reuters/Henry Romero

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - On Wednesday 6 September 2023, Mexico's Supreme Court struck down a federal law criminalising abortion, reaffirming an earlier ruling that criminal penalties for abortion were unconstitutional and allowing the federal healthcare system to provide services.

Mexico's highest court, which consists of eleven justices, declared that criminal penalties for abortion were unconstitutional in 2021, but the ruling only applied to the northern state of Coahuila, where that case originated.

Wednesday's ruling will increase abortion access throughout Mexico, marking a major victory for abortion rights advocates in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

It's also the latest in a wave of reproductive rights advancements across Latin America in recent years. In the United States, meanwhile, the Supreme Court struck down the national right to an abortion in 2022 and nearly half of the 50 states have restricted access dramatically.

"We wouldn't have this ruling if we didn't have the Coahuila one two years ago, but I would say that the one today has more reach, definitely in terms of access to abortion," said Isabel Fulda, deputy director of the Information Group on Reproductive Choice (GIRE), the advocacy group that brought the case.

The court sided with GIRE in a challenge to the federal penal code and declared that the section of the national law that criminalised abortion could no longer take effect.

In a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, the court said it found the abortion section of the federal penal code unconstitutional and that it violated the rights of those who can have children.

The ruling opens the door for the federal healthcare system to start providing abortions, which could become increasingly important as Mexico mulls centralising healthcare services, abortion rights advocates say.

A representative for the health ministry, which oversees federal health services, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Since the court's decriminalisation ruling in 2021, Mexico's 32 states have been slow to repeal their penal codes accordingly. Aguascalientes became the twelfth  Mexican state to decriminalise abortion last month when the Supreme Court sided with GIRE in a similar challenge to that state's penal code.