Mexico Supreme Court Ruling: Abortion is Not a Crime

By Jeralyn, Section Foreign Affairs
Posted on Tue Sep 07, 2021 at 03:19:01 PM EST
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The Mexico Supreme Court has ruled that laws criminalizing abortion violate its Consitution.

The unanimous ruling from the nation’s top court follows a growing women’s movement in Mexico that has repeatedly taken to the streets of major cities across the country, demanding greater rights and protections for women.

“Today is a historic day for the rights of all Mexican women,” said Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldivar after the decision was announced. “It is a watershed in the history of the rights of all women, especially the most vulnerable.”

And then, there's Texas, whose Governor showed some foot in mouth disease when answering a question about the new Texas law banning abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat (usually 6 weeks): Texas won't force rape victims to have babies because they have 6 weeks to get an abortion and Texas will make a great effort to eliminate rape by removing rapists from the streets.

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Mexico Supreme Court Ruling: Abortion is Not a Crime | 20 comments (20 topical)

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Mexico (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by Ga6thDem on Tue Sep 07, 2021 at 07:10:29 PM EST

looks better by the day as a retirement destination. I am sure now that people from Texas are going to be going across the border. How many people are going to be taking vacations in Mexico now instead of the local beach? The good news is that most of the states banning either close enough to drive or not much of a flight. And healthcare in Mexico is cheap.

: Mexican beaches (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by MKS on Tue Sep 07, 2021 at 07:15:15 PM EST

are better than Texas beaches to begin with. Now more appealing than ever. Cancun in the Caribbean and Acapulco and Mazatlán on Pacific. The Texas Gulf is better than nothing, but....
Wonder if economic boycotts of Texas will start. May be hard to recruit women lawyers to work in Dallas or Houston, etc.

The most serious act of civil disobedience (5.00 / 2) (#3)
by Peter G on Tue Sep 07, 2021 at 07:32:25 PM EST

that I ever committed was in 1970, when abortion was still a felony in Pennsylvania for anyone who performed or assisted. (Not for the pregnant woman, per a humane decision of the state supreme court some time in the '50s, as I recall.) I was a junior in college, and one of the few among my circle of friends who had a car (a 1963 Dodge Polara, with push-button automatic transmission on the dash, that my grandfather had given me rather than trade it in for peanuts). A friend -- not my girlfriend, just a female friend -- asked me whether I would drive her to the rear parking lot of a church a few towns away, where someone else (perhaps a minister, but I was never told) would meet us and then drive her to Delaware (an hour away) where she would rendezvous with a doctor. This was an underground network called the "Clergy Consultation Service." If I was willing to do that for a friend notwithstanding the (theoretical) risk of seven years in prison, I suppose I would also have done the same if I knew that anyone unsympathetic who might find out could sue me for $10,000. But as far as I know, no one other than two or three of her girlfriends did know, and no one ever talked about it (certainly not me). Until I told my daughters the story a few years ago.

: I just knew you are a Mensch. (none / 0) (#10)
by oculus on Wed Sep 08, 2021 at 08:56:15 AM EST

When I saw Greg Abbott (5.00 / 2) (#4)
by Chuck0 on Tue Sep 07, 2021 at 07:43:33 PM EST

on the nightly news claim that women in Texas would not need abortions due to rape because there would be no rape in Texas, my wife had to pry my jaw off the floor with a shovel. I could not believe anyone could make such a claim on national television with a straight face.

I am so glad I left that $hithole state exactly one week week after Katrina. If I still lived in Texas my head would explode every freaking day.

There are some real loons here in PA (Doug Mastriano are you reading?), but thankfully they are no completely running the asylum. Thank you for sanity Tom Wolf. Rachel Levine you are missed.

It's astounding (none / 0) (#5)
by CaptHowdy on Tue Sep 07, 2021 at 08:04:04 PM EST

I can't figure out what he and others like DeSantis think the end game is unless they really think they can stop 75% of the public from voting.

I don't think they can.

It seems clear the central idea on the right is own the libs. Hard to believe we might look back on the decades of horrible policy as the good old days because at least it was about policy.

I wonder if this is because they believe Trump really is going to run again. Or maybe it's because they believe he is not and Trumpism will be left up to them

Whatever, I think it's disastrously bad politics.


the problem (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by Ga6thDem on Wed Sep 08, 2021 at 07:05:49 AM EST

is IMO that the GOP has never been held accountable for every bad thing they have done. So they are going to continue to do bad things.


They lost (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by CaptHowdy on Wed Sep 08, 2021 at 08:39:10 AM EST

the House, the Senate and the White House.

That's a kind of accountability. The only kind that matters really. The thinkers have been saying since the beginning of Trump that the only thing that will change Republican behavior is losing elections.

And while they are losing nationally they are winning locally in to many places with the same behavior.

They are going to continue to lose nationally IMO. But it might not matter if they keep winning locally.


: They don't (none / 0) (#11)
by Ga6thDem on Wed Sep 08, 2021 at 01:40:28 PM EST

seem to be chastened in the least by losing. So my hope is the judicial process holding them accountable even though the wheels grind incredibly slow.

This being Texas (none / 0) (#6)
by KeysDan on Tue Sep 07, 2021 at 09:06:05 PM EST

and Abbott the Governor, the plan may be to eliminate rape. (and incest) in the state. "Eliminate" being a legislative re-definition of rape-- exclude date rape as rape, after all such charges can just ruin a nice white boy's grand future. And, tap into their other misogynistic proclivities such as the " her clothing was provocative" affirmative defense. Texas Republicans may have trouble with the rando who jumps out of the bushes, but I have confidence that they will try.


Before we celebrate the Mexico decision (5.00 / 3) (#8)
by Peter G on Wed Sep 08, 2021 at 07:33:23 AM EST

there are some points that the news coverage does not make clear. First, as I think I heard, this ruling applies only to the first trimester. That's better than the prior situation, but it's not nearly enough. And saying something is not a crime does not mean it is not illegal. Think marijuana decriminalization vs. legalization. Exactly what does this decision mean? Where does it leave Mexican women (or visitors to Mexico)?

We're two ships passing in the night. (none / 0) (#12)
by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Sep 08, 2021 at 02:55:30 PM EST

While Mexico's Supreme Court ushers its reluctant country into the 21st century, our own gung-ho SCOTUS drags us back to the 1950s like we're a long-lost episode of "The Twilight Zone."

Question about the TX abortion law (none / 0) (#13)
by CaptHowdy on Wed Sep 08, 2021 at 05:30:54 PM EST

So, someone can just accuse you of aiding and abetting an abortion and start a civil action? And possibly collect money? And at the very least make your life miserable?

Dan said in the other thread if you didn't respond, you lose. So can some one just say this because they don't like you? Knowing they won't collect money?

Do they need evidence?

This sounds like a nightmare on so many levels. I hope I misunderstand.

The US Dept of Justice just filed a federal court (5.00 / 1) (#20)
by Peter G on Thu Sep 09, 2021 at 04:14:32 PM EST

action in Austin against the State of Texas to declare S.B.8 invalid and enjoin its enforcement on quite a few interesting theories. The complaint reads more like a legal brief than it does like a typical civil suit.


My understanding (none / 0) (#14)
by Ga6thDem on Wed Sep 08, 2021 at 05:57:40 PM EST

is that the person you are accusing is supposed to pay the 10K. My question is what if they don't have 10K?

Best description I have heard is that it is like the old East Germany where you reported people to the Stasi. Where it goes from there seems to still be unclear to most people. I am guessing one of our legal eagles around here might have read the bill and can explain it to us laymen.


A unpaid Civil Judgment (none / 0) (#15)
by MKS on Thu Sep 09, 2021 at 01:10:26 PM EST

for 10k can be enforced through several measures such as garnishment of wages, liens on real property, attachment of bank accounts, etc.

But, if there are no assets, the judgment goes uncollected. I have heard that most civil judgments go uncollected.

And, most civil judgments can be wiped out by a bankruptcy filing.


: Hence the term (none / 0) (#18)
by MKS on Thu Sep 09, 2021 at 02:09:48 PM EST

"Judgment Proof."
I have seen some inveterate con artists show total disdain for the justice system. A formal legal "Judgment" is just another piece of paper. They have no assets in their personal name. So, get a judgment, and then,....nothing happens. They think it is all a joke.
Our civil system really does not have much it can against those who decided to not play by the rules.

The neighbor next door (none / 0) (#16)
by MKS on Thu Sep 09, 2021 at 01:12:19 PM EST

whom you do not like and who suffered a miscarriage, you accuse....

Disgruntled ex boyfriends, etc.

Legalized snitching and informants....Fascism writ large.


Is there anything written (none / 0) (#17)
by jondee on Thu Sep 09, 2021 at 01:27:38 PM EST

into the law that attempts to thwart women from traveling out of state for abortions?

A new and improved Texas Fugitive Slave Act, as it were?

: The Texas Anti-Abortion (none / 0) (#19)
by KeysDan on Thu Sep 09, 2021 at 03:08:44 PM EST

Bill SB8 is here. The "Fugitive Uterus Act" applies within Texas, a large state. Probably, SB 8's most execrable, but likely effective ploy, is to terrorize and intimidate providers and those who aid and abet. Essentially, affecting providers by closing or restricting services and the women (who are not subject to the civil suits)by fearing for their family, friends and others who help or intend to help.
The bounty award is often reported as $10,000, but SB 8's wording is ..."not less than $10,000."