This June 2, the XVI Legislature of the Congress of the State of Baja California Sur approved, with sixteen votes in favor and three against, the decriminalization of abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation.
The local Congress approved the modifications to its Penal Code and the Health Law to guarantee women and pregnant people their right to the legal interruption of pregnancy free of charge and without the grounds of rape or health risk. The law will enter into force the day after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Government of the State of Baja California Sur.
With this reform, Baja California Sur becomes the ninth entity in the country to decriminalize abortion, followed by Mexico City since 2007, Oaxaca since 2019, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Baja California and Colima since 2021 and Sinaloa and Guerrero since March and May of this year, respectively.
The reform project discussed in the legislative chamber was presented on May 26 by the activist Mónica Jasis, director of the Centro Mujeres AC, so this is the first time that a citizen initiative on abortion has become a reform of law.
In addition to decriminalization, the sanction for those women and pregnant people who interrupt their pregnancy after twelve weeks is reduced, going from between six months and two years in prison to two months or sixty days of community work.
The new approval seeks that the State Code stops criminalizing and punishing women who have abortions by personal decision and freely, as well as guaranteeing that it be done safely and free of charge to safeguard their integrity and health.
Source: Okchicas
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