Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled today that women will be able to challenge the country’s state laws that criminalize abortion, paving the way for a nationwide decriminalization.

Local ordinances punishing termination of pregnancy violate women’s rights, the court ruled.

“The status of a woman or person capable of childbearing is sufficient to enable someone to bring legal action against the unconstitutionality of provisions criminalizing abortion,” according to the court’s decision.

Abortion has been decriminalized in 11 of Mexico’s 32 states, the capital of which has allowed it since 2007, up to the 12th week of pregnancy in most cases.

The decision announced yesterday, Wednesday, by the Supreme Court, allows women who live in states where abortion is a criminal offense to be able to go to court whether they are pregnant or not, which leads to the de facto approval of abortion in national level.

Criminalizing abortion goes against women’s rights “to autonomy, reproduction, life and non-discrimination, health and personal integrity,” the Supreme Court ruled.

In 2016, the court rejected an earlier plan that declared unconstitutional sections of the Federal Penal Code that criminalize abortion, which would have decriminalized it nationwide.

According to official data, medical abortion is the method most used in Mexico for the voluntary termination of pregnancies before the 12th week of pregnancy.

Civic associations have created a network that allows women to access the method throughout Mexico, as well as in the US, where the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned a decision that granted a federal constitutional right to abortion, giving back to each state the freedom to legislate on the matter.